‘It’ll be at least four months before I can walk properly’ – but jockey determined to return despite third gruelling ankle surgery
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Trevor Whelan is hoping a third ankle operation in less than eight months will be his last but is resigned to the fact that a possible return to competitive riding will have to wait until 2027.
Whelan has been sidelined since his mount Tiger Bay was brought down in a race at York in September. It had initially taken two surgeons to reconstruct his damaged ankle following the fall, while he hoped a second operation in January would help increase his mobility.
However, last month the decision was made to fuse his ankle with his shin bone and he now faces a further spell of rehabilitation before he will be able to even contemplate riding again.
“I basically don’t have any movement up or down anymore,” he said. “I didn’t want to have an ankle fusion but that’s what they said they needed to do to get stability into the ankle.
“It’s a significant change because I’m going to lose all my flex in the ankle and it’s stuck in place when I stand up now. It’s going to be a long process and it’s going to be at least four months before I can walk properly. I was hoping we wouldn’t need this operation, but it just didn’t progress how we hoped it would.”
Trevor Whelan’s ankle after his latest surgery
Like Whelan, Jim Crowley suffered significant injuries when his mount Almeraq fell and badly hampered Tiger Bay in the Listed Garrowby Stakes. Crowley also remains on the sidelines having had a second operation on his leg in March, but hopes to be back in action next month.
Whelan, 37, will have to break new ground if he is to return to race riding, but that has always been his goal and he is not giving up on it until he is told otherwise.
“Trying to get fit will be hard but I’m going to try to come back,” he said. “In everyday life it will be fine but, for a jockey, losing the flex in your ankle is not ideal. It’s been stressful because at different stages the recovery had been going well until it stalled. It’s been a rollercoaster with all the ups and downs.
“There have been older riders who have had ankle replacements but as far as I’m aware there hasn’t been any jockeys who have had an ankle fusion, never mind ridden with one, so it’s pretty rare. It all depends on the individual and how comfortable it is to ride, but it won’t be until next year. To get back walking is going to take an extensive amount of physio first and then I’ll go from there.”
Read more here:
Trevor Whelan facing further surgery after York horror fall as return to the saddle gets pushed back
‘It’s positive at the minute, before it was looking very bleak’ – Trevor Whelan facing crucial stage in his recovery from ankle injury
Trevor Whelan breaks leg in three places and Jim Crowley also taken to hospital after frightening mid-race incident at York
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