Football proves the beautiful game for jockey forced to retire from riding

For Sir Alex Ferguson, racing was his release from the pressures of football management – but for one former Flat jockey it is the opposite.

A horrendous back injury forced Mick O'Connell to retire from the saddle in 2013 – the same year the legendary Manchester United manager hung up his hairdryer – but now the Group-winning rider has moved into Fergie's old line of work as a way of replicating the joy of racing.

"The football management is just a challenge really," says the structural engineer and new manager of Harrogate Railway Athletic FC – who are members of the Northern Counties East League Division One.

"After riding for a number of years you miss that competitive edge and the camaraderie, seeing all the lads in the weighing room on a daily basis. After racing I needed something to get my teeth into just to solely focus my mind on something and get the competitive edge back."

O’Connell, who hails from County Kildare in Ireland, is as comfortable in football boots as he was in breeches having played youth football for Nottingham Forest and Celtic before being released. At 16 he was questioning what to do next.

"I never touched a horse until I was 16," he explains. "When I got released I was questioning what to do next and I set out to become an apprentice electrician, but someone said to me, 'You’re small, why don't you try being a jockey and go to the racing school in Curragh'. I thought at the time it wasn't really me, but I wanted to show I was interested.

"I did the trial and loved it. I got accepted back in the racing academy at the Curragh and it all went from there. I ended up winning pupil of the year after the ten-month course – it was just a brilliant experience and put me in the right part of life."

Sir Alex Ferguson: another example of the crossover of football management and racingCredit: Edward Whitaker

A promising career followed. In 2010 O'Connell switched from jumps to the Flat and things really took off. He had 11 winners in his first season and followed that with tallies of 27 and 41.

He was having his best season to date when suffering a cruel back injury shortly after landing the job as stable jockey to John Quinn, putting paid to his hopes of continuing his career as a rider. It was the second time his sporting dreams were crushed.

"I ruptured two discs in my back, severed my sciatic nerve and fractured three or four vertebrae," he says. "I always thought I’d get back from it and for six to eight months I kept thinking 'I'll always get back, I'll always get back'.

"When it started getting on to a year and then 18 months, I realised I might not. I was seeing a lot of specialists who were advising me never to ride again because my back was so weak. In the end the decision was made for me and it was really, really hard to take.

"If I’m being honest, it took me two-and-a-half years to actually get over it. I had a lot of dark times when I realised I was coming to the end of my sporting career. When you've done that all your life and nothing else, it gets you down and it's very hard to get your head around it."

However, that part of his life may not be over just yet. Although O’Connell can no longer ride, he is determined to return to the sport in some capacity, after giving himself time to mentally recover from the injury.

"I will 100 per cent go back into racing and do something. I can’t ride anymore, but whether it's bloodstock or training a bit further down the line, I'd like to do something.

"That book isn’t closed by any stretch of the imagination. I always said if I wasn’t riding I couldn't be involved in racing, but I just needed some time away to reflect and clear my head from it all.

"It's very hard to stay in and around racing and be involved if I can't ride, because there's just something missing. But now I've had some time out I definitely will get back into it in about 18 months to two years."

Mick O'Connell: rides a winner at Hamilton in 2011Credit: John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)

With mental health awareness topical in sport and wider society, O’Connell was keen to reassure anyone who might have suffered a similar experience that light can be found at the end of a dark tunnel.

"There is always something else for a jockey or any sportspeople, it's not the end of the world. It's hard at the time, but there’s always something for people to do.

"For me it had to be something to do with sport, which is why I ended up doing my coaching badges and coming back to football. Every cloud has a silver lining and you just have to focus your mind on something and pursue that."

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