Hollie Doyle has built her career on relentless drive. A formidable work ethic and an insatiable appetite for winners have taken Britain’s most successful female Flat jockey to the very top, and after suffering the most serious injury of her career in a fall from Vault Of Heaven at Bath on May 22, that same mentality is now driving her rehabilitation.
Taking up the story, she says: “As soon as I hit the ground, I knew it wasn’t good. My left leg was dangling and facing completely the wrong way. The bone was nearly through the skin.
“I’d broken my right tibia and fibula before and was back riding in three months, so in my head I thought they’d manipulate it, put it in a cast and that would be that. I don’t think I realised quite how serious this one actually was.”
“I had a fall last year on the way down to post and completely snapped my ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) in my right knee. I didn’t want to stop riding, so I decided to strengthen everything around my knee and carry on, and that’s been fine. Looking back, I think I was probably trying to protect that leg when I fell, which is why I took the impact on my left.”
The fall resulted in a complex pilon fracture, affecting the weight-bearing surface of the ankle, with both the tibia and fibula broken. She also suffered a snapped PCL (posterior cruciate ligament), a grade two MCL (medial collateral ligament) tear and an ACL tear in her left knee. With the swelling too severe for immediate surgery, an external fixator was fitted to stabilise the ankle while surgeons waited for it to settle. Doyle spent ten days in hospital before undergoing the operation to reconstruct the ankle.
“I’ve always had the mindset that no matter what, I just keep going,” she says. “My career has always come first, but for probably the first time in my life, I knew I was going to have to listen to my body.”
Surgeons rebuilt the ankle using plates, rods and screws, beginning what Doyle knows will be the longest rehabilitation of her career.
“This is the first time I can’t tell you how long I’ll be out,” she says. “Usually I know straight away, but this time I genuinely don’t know. What I do know is that I’ll be back.”
Doyle has thrown herself into recovery with the same single-mindedness that has carried her throughout her career. Anyone who follows her will know the gym has long been as much a part of her daily routine as race riding itself, and this injury has done little to change that. Pull-ups, single-leg squats and upper-body sessions remain firmly on the agenda, because feeling sorry for herself has never been an option.
“I’ve always been obsessive with routine, so now my whole day revolves around rehab. I’m at Oaksey House every day working on my upper body, my core and keeping my right leg as strong as possible. I’m also using the ice therapy, compression boots, the hyperbaric chamber and a Compex muscle stimulator. Having access to facilities like this gives you every chance of recovering as quickly and as well as possible, and that’s what I’m focused on. I spent a few days at Peter O’Sullevan House during Newmarket’s July Meeting as well, which was a nice change of scenery.”
“I had another appointment last week and the X-rays showed the bones are healing well, which is encouraging, so the boot has come off and I can now start weight-bearing. I’ve also been given the go-ahead to start using the hydrotherapy pool, so now it’s all about building the strength up again.”
“I don’t want to be a has-been. I don’t have a timeframe, but I want to get back to where I was. That’s what motivates me.
“It’s hard to say what’s realistic and what’s not, but Hong Kong is the aim. It’s still early days and hopefully in a few more weeks I’ll have a better idea of how things are progressing. As a sportsperson, you’re always looking for the next target. Racing has a habit of changing your fortunes overnight, but if anything, this has only made me more determined to get back.”
This article has been kindly written by Georgia Cox for the Injured Jockeys Fund.
