A jockey spent two weeks with a broken neck before she received the shock diagnosis.
Bridget Andrews walked away from a heavy fall at Warwick's final fence on April 21. Riding Dazzling Glory, the mare was in with a winning chance when she took the obstacle in an erratic fashion.
On the approach the three-time winner lugged left into the eventual fourth San Agustin and bumped leader The Late Legend as she came down. Andrews was thrown clear but as she landed her neck took the impact. Dazzling Glory, a point-to-point scorer making her steeplechase debut, galloped away from the incident.
Andrews, 28, who is married to 2020-21 champion jockey Harry Skelton, thought she had escaped unscathed. When she continued to feel some discomfort, the top sportswoman went to hospital. It took several scans for medics to find out what was wrong – fractures to her C2 and C6 vertebra, as well as a crack in the T5.
Andrews said she persisted after the first MRI and had further X-rays over the next fortnight. "I eventually went for a CT scan, just to clear it all up and hopefully get back to race-riding if it was all clear and it turned out I had broken my neck in three places," she told the Racing Post.
Andrews, aboard resounding Aintree winner Protektorat last December, which put him on-course for the 2022 Gold Cup, has been given a neck brace to wear. She expects to need it for around a month and will take her time before returning to the saddle.
"Potentially, I could climb back on a couple of months from the fall but we'll see," she added. "Okay, I haven't been lucky because I've broken my neck but I'm walking around, I'm not stuck in hospital and there's a lot of people in a much worse position, so I'm feeling pretty lucky."
Andrews is not the only jockey to have unknowingly carried around an injury of late. James Bowen was in action at Chepstow the day after a tumble at another Welsh venue, Ffos Las, last month. He then learned he had broken his wrist and has since visited Oaksey House to make steps towards his comeback.
