For most of us, an injury is an interruption. For a jockey, it can feel like a full stop. For Connor Mahon, that is where the work begins. A sports rehabilitation therapist and strength and conditioning coach at Oaksey House, Connor joined the IJF from elite women’s football and now supports jockeys throughout their careers — from staying fit and preventing injury to rehabilitation, recovery and lifelong support.
You’ve worked in Birmingham and Coventry women’s football — how different is it at Oaksey House?
“Women’s football is still developing and growing incredibly quickly, but we didn’t always have the facilities to train properly. If the men’s team were using them, for example, the women could be moved at the last minute.
Coming to Oaksey House, what surprised me was the different range and severity of injuries. In football, they tend to be more muscle, tendon and ligament-related, whereas in racing you see far more high-impact injuries — broken bones, clavicles, pelvises and femurs, as well as hip and knee replacements and concussions.
The facilities here are a major advantage. When I was working in football, one of the players had an ACL injury and we were having to use a public swimming pool. Here, we have everything we need on site. That makes a huge difference, particularly because injuries can be very personal and difficult for people to deal with.
You’ve had some really serious injuries come through Oaksey House over the last 12 months — Trevor, Hollie and Jim Crowley among them — all with significant lower‑limb injuries. What is it like working with someone at the very start of a long road back?
“It’s a shock for them. They’re so used to being busy, always looking ahead, and their minds still want to be competitive. The first stage is the realisation that they’re going to be off for a while, regardless of how their season is going, how much momentum they’ve built, or what big race is coming up. Then come the mind games: trying to beat the timeframe the doctor has given them. They’re all ultra‑competitive — none of them want to be off.
No one ever thinks it will happen to them, so there’s a real process of coming to terms with it. Everyone deals with injury differently, and jockeys don’t cope well with uncertainty, so it’s an unnerving time.
For me, it’s about assessing the situation, tailoring everything to the individual, and finding things they can do so they feel occupied and feel like they’re still moving forward.
Recovery is never straightforward. It’s constantly changing, and every injury brings different challenges. They have up‑and‑down days — maybe they’re not recovering as quickly as they want to, or they’ve missed winners — and you have to stay positive while still being realistic.
Sometimes it’s about steadying the ship and helping them stay level. They’re facing the possibility that things might not be the same again, and you have to respect that frustration and the fear that an injury could be career‑ending.
And the whole team regularly meets to discuss each individual’s progress?
We all come together to come up with a plan. It’s about doing the best for them at their current stage throughout their rehab.
I’m massive on psychology. I think it’s important to have a place where there’s no judgement, where you can air your views and have someone qualified to offer intervention techniques or a different perspective that might help.
I openly talk about it with the lads because I believe the more it’s talked about, the more normal it becomes. How much of a hit James Doyle’s video was proved that.
At the end of the day, your mind is a very powerful thing. People come into the gym to look after their physical health, and I talk about seeing a psychologist in the same way.
I see it as emptying the rubbish bin so it doesn’t end up overflowing. It’s also about training the mind. It’s about perception, and a psychologist can see things that you can’t.
When you’re injured, you can’t always see the long term or the light at the end of the tunnel because you’re so invested. It can be hard to see the bigger picture.
And I think we’ve seen massive progress, as people who would never have believed in psychologists before are now booking sessions.”
The renovation plans for Oaksey are set. That must be massively exciting for you, knowing you’re going to have a brand-new gym to work with.
“Yeah, it’s hugely exciting. So much thought has gone into how best to utilise the space and make sure it has everything to meet everyone’s needs.
We’ve looked at how we can adapt things and make them as easy as possible for the people we provide for. That’s what makes the centre so special and unique.
It’s another piece in the puzzle as the IJF strives to be the best, and that aligns with us as staff — we want to do better and be better. It’s going to be very impressive.”
Georgia Cox in conversation with Conor Mahon.