Mick Fitzgerald “comfortable” after Grand National fall
Mick Fitzgerald is reported to be in a “comfortable condition” following his fall during the Grand National at Aintree on Saturday (5 April).
The jockey underwent an eight-hour operation on Sunday to re-align three vertebrae and two discs in his neck.
Mick, who won the Grand National in 1996 on Rough Quest, was riding the Francois Doumen-trained L’Ami in this year’s race when he fell at the second fence.
At 37 years old Mick was the oldest rider the 2008 Grand National. He was taken off the course on a stretcher and transferred to hospital to undergo MRI scans. He is now being closely monitored by the medical team at the Royal Liverpool Hospital.
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A graduate of Exeter University, Amy joined our news team from Redpin Publishing in 2008 as news writer. She was promoted to deputy news editor in May 2013 and became news editor in April 2015. She left Horse & Hound in March 2016 to take up an editorial position in Dubai.