I have to admit, I am really pleased that news is getting out about Mick Fitzgerald and how he is progressing. I was worried there would be a news black out until after his next operation. Really pleased the press is being kept updated especially as so far, the news has been pretty positive although another big operation for him on Monday. :brows:
Losing Fitzgerald would be like losing my right arm - Henderson
by Lee Mottershead and Rodney Masters
NICKY HENDERSON on Saturday welcomed Mick Fitgerald's desire to resume his riding career by saying that losing his injured stable jockey's services would be akin to "having my right arm chopped off".
Henderson was speaking two days after visiting Fitzgerald in Oxford's Nuffield Hospital, where the 37-year-old is set to undergo a lengthy operation on Monday, in which orthopaedic surgeon Jeremy Fairbanks will concentrate on the neck injury the rider sustained in his Grand National fall from L'Ami.
Fitzgerald, who will also have a knee operated on during surgery, insisted that "retirement is the furthest thing from my mind".
>>John Francome knows all about the high risk associated with life as a jump jockey, which makes him perfectly qualified to proclaim Mick Fitzgerald as superhuman in the wake of his Grand National fall last weekend.
The former champion was one of Fitzgerald's first visitors following his transfer to the Nuffield Hospital in Oxford, where the 37-year-old is due to undergo further surgery on Monday.
Francome said: “Mick must be as tough as nails. He has had a rough time of it with eight hours of surgery to his neck, plus injuries to a knee and bruised ribs, but when I arrived at the hospital I found him sittingup in a chair and in really good spirits. It was great to see him looking so good.” Fitzgerald will need to be resilient because he now faces up to a further five hours of surgery.
His initial session of surgery to realign three vertebrae and two discs in his neck came 24 hours after the second-fence fall from L'Ami, and was carried out at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital.
One of his closest friends, Carl Llewellyn, said they did not even discuss whether he would return to raceriding during a visit on Thursday evening.
“We didn't mention it, because there are other things to think about in the short term. He has a metal ‘halo' fitted to his head to support the neck, but that didn't stop him taking a few steps around the bed. Up to Wednesday night he hadn't eaten since the fall, but he looked in good shape – he had some colour in his face, which is unusual for him!”
Other hospital visitors included Dominic Elsworth.
While his number one jockey is sidelined, Henderson will engage the regulars who ride out at Seven Barrows. He said: “Andrew Tinkler had a couple of winners for us at Liverpool, Marcus Foley is due back from injury next week and our conditional jockey, Felix de Giles, is in great form.”
...and agree maybe now he will have thoughts about retiring
