'It's been tough mentally' - PJ McDonald back in the saddle after four-month injury layoff

King George-winning jockey PJ McDonald admits he faces no easy task as he returns this week after four and a half months out, but stresses he is ready for the challenge.

North Yorkshire-based McDonald, 42, has ridden well over 1,000 winners since switching to the Flat in 2007, but is trying to re-establish himself as a freelance this season after an enforced ending of his association with banned owner John Dance.

He has been sidelined since a fall at Wolverhampton in February and said on Sunday: "This is the longest I've been off and it's been tough mentally. 

"This was a really important year because it was my first year going freelance for a very long time. We were coming to the end of February and the time to start putting myself about through early spring, get myself round yards and try to build a base for this year, then I went and got injured.

"I know it's going to be no easy task coming back in the middle of the season with no stable job, but I'm fit and I'm hungry and I've ridden winners for a lot of trainers."

McDonald won the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot on Pyledriver in 2022 and has landed five Group 1s, as well as the Scottish Grand National in his days as a jump jockey.

"I know I've got the ability because I've done it before," he said. "It's just trying to get back on the right horses. Looking in from the outside, it seems very competitive at the moment, but nothing's easy in this game and I'll be ready for the challenge. I'm looking forward to getting back."

PJ McDonald: won the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes on Pyledriver in 2022Credit: Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

McDonald was injured when unseated from Shabaaby at Wolverhampton on February 19.

"I dislocated my shoulder in the fall. They put it back on track and I thought it was a straightforward dislocation and I'd be out for three to four weeks for rehab on the muscles," he said. "But when I went for my MRI scan it showed I'd made an absolute mess of my shoulder. 

"If you think of a clock face, I'd ripped the muscle off from 12 to five on one side and from 12 to eight down the other. And I'd ripped all the tendons and ligaments and chipped my rotator cuff as well. I had to have three different procedures in an operation on my shoulder.

"Considering the extent of the injury and the work I've had done, the rehab has gone really well. Jack Berry House has been brilliant, keeping the reins on before we got the all-clear from the specialist Dan Henderson that I could push on. From then I got better every week."

McDonald feared he might have been absent for a lot longer. "At one stage I thought I could be out for ten months or a year, so I've done very well to be back after four and half months," he said.

"I've spent the week riding out at Karl Burke's [Middleham Moor] and I hope I'm going to go down to Andrew Balding [Kingsclere] this coming week, then pop down to James Horton in Newmarket. I'm clear to go. I've been passed by Jerry Hill of the BHA and I'll be back riding on Thursday."

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