Bryan Carver eyeing summer return after rupturing spleen in skiing accident

Jump jockey Bryan Carver is planning to be back in action within the next two months after rupturing his spleen in a skiing accident in France.

The 24-year-old was airlifted to hospital in Grenoble and spent a week in intensive care following a fall on the slopes while on a post-season holiday with other jockeys at the end of April.

Having returned safely to Britain, the Irish-born rider is starting to take the next step in his rehabilitation.

"It's coming along slowly and will probably take longer than ideal," he said. "I'm feeling an awful lot better though, everything seems to be going the right way and, hopefully, I'll be back at the end of July to the start of August.

"I did my spleen at grade four level and it takes six weeks to be able to do light activity and more time before it can take impact and I can come back racing. At the moment I'm light walking but in the next few days I'm hoping to start doing more in the gym and swimming, and then in a few weeks I'll go to Oaksey House in Lambourn."

Carver, who went away with fellow jockeys Angus Cheleda, Fergus Gillard and Ben Godfrey, suffered the fall on the last day of the holiday and did not realise the damage he had done until a couple of hours later when his body went into shock.

"I was out there for two weeks in total and thankfully the journey back from France went very smoothly," he said. "I had a check-up after being in England for two weeks and the doctors were happy and I won't see them again until the end of July, when I'll hopefully get the all-clear."

While other injuries curtailed his campaign last season, Carver gained 15 winners – having racked up 34 in 2020-21 – and managed to ride out his claim in April.

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