Dr An Do, from the University of California at Irvine, who co-led the study, said: “Even after years of paralysis the brain can still generate robust brain waves that can be harnessed to enable basic walking.

“We showed that you can restore intuitive, brain-controlled walking after a complete spinal cord injury. This non-invasive system for leg muscle stimulation is a promising method and is an advance of our current brain-controlled systems that use virtual reality or a robotic exoskeleton.”

Although the man is still a long way from the freedom of movement he had before his accident, the fact that he was able to walk at all is a major achievement. The nerves of the spinal cord are unable to regenerate and severing them usually results in irreversible life-long paralysis.