A JOCKEY had part of his shoulder bone removed in major surgery following a horror fall.
Rob Hornby went under the knife on January 4 after a shocking coming together that saw a rival flung like a ‘rag doll’.
Hornby and Ben Curtis both crashed to the floor during a race at Wolverhampton in December.
Incredibly, both got to their feet as worried fans watched on.
But the consequences of the fall are still being felt, with Hornby now resigned to missing the start of the 2021 flat season.
He tweeted a hospital bed selfie from Cardiff Vale Hospital with his left arm in a sling on January 4.
Hornby, 25, had initially hoped to be out for just a few weeks but now faces four months on the sidelines.
Describing the procedure to the Racing Post, he said: “I had some scans before Christmas that revealed my left shoulder was worse than they first thought and that I needed an operation on it.
“There were two types they can do which were either keyhole, where they repair the ligaments, or open surgery, where they have to repair the bone that has been chipped off the cup.
“Unfortunately, once they opened me up, they said it was a bit of a mess in there and there was bone damage to the cup.
“They had to take some bone off another part of my shoulder and screw it onto the cup to make it secure and the ligaments were repaired over that.
“I have to be in a sling for six weeks and I’ve very limited movement at present.
“The surgeon said a worst case scenario could be four months out but hopefully I’ll be able to get into the fantastic facilities at Oaksey House to speed up the process.”
Oaksey House is where injured jockeys go to recover from falls and other injuries.
Curtis, 31, was labelled ‘superhuman’ by stunned fans after getting to his feet following his fall from Fortultous in the 1m 4f race.
The incident occurred when his horse clipped the heels of another, with Hornby being caught up in the carnage.
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