'I wouldn't wish this on anyone' - Harry Bannister suffers nasty hip injury

Jockey Harry Bannister is set for a lengthy absence out of the saddle after having multiple surgeries on a dislocated hip following a nasty fall at Stratford at the weekend.

Bannister suffered the injury when the Richard Bandey-trained Godrevy Point fell in the 2m5f handicap chase at the track last Saturday and the rider was taken to the University Hospital Coventry.

He remains in hospital following two surgeries to put his hip back in place, as well as fixing a fragment of bone in his hip which broke off during the incident.

Bannister said on Thursday morning: "I'm as well as I can be. It's sore and I wouldn't wish this on anyone, I must admit. It's one of those unfortunate things and I've just got to take it, it could've been worse and we'll march on and have another go.

"I dislocated my hip but when it did so it broke some of the hip off with it. I've had to have a few surgeries, one to put the hip back in place and two to tape it back together. In terms of the force of the fall, I think unfortunately a lot of volume got put into one area."

The multiple Grade 2-winning jockey hopes to be discharged from hospital soon and return to his home near Lambourn before beginning his recovery, but has no timescale on when he can resume race-riding again.

For Pleasure: Grade 2-winning hurdler is one of the horses Bannister had to look forward to this seasonCredit: Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

"Falling at Stratford I thought I may have gone to a hospital closer to home, but I'm quite far away as Coventry is a major trauma centre," Bannister added. "Luckily Mum, Dad and my girlfriend Rosie have all been very good coming to see me.

"I'll get back doing physiotherapy at Oaksey House and then we'll slightly start coming up with a timescale.

"Hopefully I'll be out of hospital by the end of the week, but I'm not 100 per cent sure yet, it depends on how happy the doctors are with my movement and how well the two surgeries went."

Bannister enjoyed a career best season over jumps last term with 49 winners and over £560,000 in prize-money, but admits bettering that this time is unlikely given he is set to miss a significant portion of the winter campaign.

"It's very frustrating for me with this time of year and building up into the real season now. We had a quiet enough summer, so to miss this time is a bit gutting," he said. "However, I could've been a lot worse off and you have to think like that.

"It's a shame. It's not a great time of the season to do it, but there are worse things that can happen. There's a lot of things that are unfortunate about it and there are a lot of things you'd have liked to have hoped to happen, like bettering last season, but this is where we are at."

Read this next:

'I need a little more time' - Shoemark targeting Breeders' Cup injury return

Sign up to receive On The Nose, our essential daily newsletter, from the Racing Post. Your unmissable morning feed, direct to your email inbox every morning.