Sport

Injured Fallon faces tests

Kieren Fallon faces an anxious wait before finding out the extent of the injuries he picked up in a controversial fall at Longchamp…

Brian O'Connor Racing Correspondent
Tue Jul 17 2007 - 01:00

Kieren Fallon faces an anxious wait before finding out the extent of the injuries he picked up in a controversial fall at Longchamp over the weekend.

The former champion jockey began a comprehensive series of tests, X-rays and scans yesterday which will determine how long he will have to remain on the sidelines.

The fall from Eagle Mountain in the Group One Grand Prix de Paris after a collision with the eventual winner, Zambezi Sun, cost Fallon a classic winner on board Peeping Fawn in Sunday's Irish Oaks and may yet result in further damage to an already interrupted season.

Fallon wasn't available for comment yesterday but the Turf Club medical officer Dr Walter Halley was in contact with him.

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"I've spoken to Kieren and also been in touch with Aidan O'Brien. He has been referred for a full screening and we hope in the next 48 hours to find out the full extent of his injuries. But he won't be allowed ride until his consultant and myself are completely happy.

"It was a very serious fall and it is a case of throwing the works at him in terms of tests because with the nature of the fall, you wouldn't know what might have happened," Halley said.

Initial reports on Sunday suggested Fallon was suffering from a very still neck, shoulder problems and was also quite ill from having to take painkillers after the incident which O'Brien has described as "the most bizarre thing".

Some reports indicate that the top French rider Stephane Pasquier was booed by the crowd at Longchamp after a prolonged stewards enquiry resulted in Zambezi Sun keeping the race.

Fallon was unseated after half a mile of the 12-furlong "Bastille Day" feature after Pasquier's mount appeared to collide with Eagle Mountain. The Irish jockey had to be stretchered from the track in a neck brace but was later cleared to go home without having to visit a hospital.

It is the latest blow to the controversial star who only returned to race-riding from a six-month drugs ban last month and faces a High Court trial in London in September into police charges of race-fixing.