Single phosphorus donors in silicon are promising candidates as qubits in the solid state. Here, we present low temperature scanning probe microscopy and spectroscopy measurements of individual phosphorus dopants deliberately placed in p-type silicon ?1?nm below the surface. The ability to image individual dopants combined with scanning tunnelling spectroscopy allows us to directly study the transport mechanism through the donor. We show that for a single P donor, transport is dominated by a minority carrier recombination process with the surrounding p-type matrix. The understanding gained will underpin future studies of atomically precise mapping of donor-donor interactions in silicon.