Mick Fitzgerald faces months on the sidelines after discovering he had broken his neck in a fall at Market Rasen last month. He has to wear a brace for between four and eight weeks after undergoing a bone-graft operation and has yet has no timescale for his return to the saddle.

The 35-year-old Grand National and Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning rider sustained the injury in a fall from Celtic Boy at the fifth fence in the Summer Plate Handicap Chase at the Lincolnshire track on July 16th. He was air-lifted to Lincoln County Hospital for precautionary X-rays on his neck and shoulder but it was only much later when he requested an MRI scan that the full extent of the damage was revealed.

"I was very lucky really. I have a small compound fracture which left too much of a gap between two vertebrae," Fitzgerald told the Daily Telegraph. "I also damaged ligaments beside the spinal cord and I was told that if I had had another fall, I could easily have suffered permanent damage."

It is only a fortnight ago that Fitzgerald went to Newbury races for physiotherapy on what he thought was a shoulder injury. "I saw physio Rabbit Slattery but even after laser treatment and gentle rubbing I wasn't happy. My back was so sore which didn't make sense. I put off a trip to Galway and ended up in Oxford for surgery.

"Without being over-dramatic, I've broken my neck. The long-term view is that I'll be okay and that I'll be no more at risk than anybody else when riding. The surgeon has taken a bone graft from my pelvis and has inserted rods. He hasn't really given me a timescale on when I will be back riding, but I will be wearing a brace from four to eight weeks."

Despite having to endure a lengthy enforced absence, Fitzgerald does not intend to retire. "When I was lying there with what I thought was a shoulder injury all I could think about was when would I be back riding. It has been the same after this operation. I am at home but I'm thinking all the time about when I can get back."