'I'll never give up' - meet the jockey determined to return to race-riding

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In Monday's email Chris reflects on the struggles of 23-year-old jockey Will Marshall – and subscribers can get more great insight, tips and racing chat from Chris every Monday to Friday.

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For almost any jockey who spends more than a few days on the sidelines, there's a nagging fear that makes every injury worse: are they forgetting about me? How hard will it be to get going again, once I'm fit?

The Front Runner got a call at the end of last week from a young rider who has been sadly out of action for a year now but is anxious to let everyone know that he's still around and hoping to make it back to the weighing room at some stage. The 23-year-old Will Marshall, a conditional jockey with Jonjo O'Neill, has suffered from debilitating headaches, the cause of which has been the subject of much discussion among his medical advisers.

As a result, his promising career has been put on hold. You might remember him as Sam Red's jockey when they won in dramatic circumstances at Cheltenham four years ago, the leader having ducked out through some tape after the final fence. That 11-1 success meant Dan Skelton had broken Martin Pipe's record for the earliest 100 winners in a season.

Marshall uses the word "nightmare" to describe his current situation. He traces his problems to a fall he had at Perth, all the way back in April last year.

"I was never right from that day," he says, recalling the time he and Tyrrell's Succes hit the ground. "It all started with normal headaches.

"I thought it was a concussion and it was just persisting and persisting. I tried to carry on riding but there was something wrong.

"The main thing is pressure in the back of the head, which affects my vision, my coordination, my balance . . . It's a horrendous brain fog.

"I only have relief from it from laying down completely flat. Anything I do, like walking or even tying a shoelace, makes the pressure in my head worse; any physical activity, literally anything, from making a cup of tea to having a shower. It feels brilliant in the morning. As soon as you sit up, the problem is there.

"I'm a tough kid but it's not been easy. It's been very depressing but I've got a brilliant family around me."

Sam Red (William Marshall) comes home in front to bring up Dan Skelton's landmark tallyCredit: John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)

Marshall stopped riding in September last year, since when he reports a great deal of medical interest, much of which led nowhere in particular. He describes it by saying: "I've had 12 or 15 MRI scans, God knows how many CT scans and two myelograms."

Eventually, he was told the problem was a leaking of cerebrospinal fluid from his spinal chord. He believes he is the first jockey to suffer such a thing as the result of a race fall. "These leaks normally only happen from trauma like a car crash."

Medication failed to improve his symptoms, so surgery was tried in May. This apparently took the form of two epidural blood patches. As Marshall puts it: "I had 38ml of my own blood and glue put into my spine at different levels to try and seal the leak."

It doesn't sound much fun and worse, it didn't work. Marshall says his medical advisers now believe they're dealing with a rare type of CSF leak called a venous fistula. In this case, he tells me, the leak would be into a vein. "Honestly," he adds, "it's a road I wouldn't wish anyone to go on but I have also learnt a lot about the human body . . ."

Further surgery is planned and Marshall has been given hope it may take place within the next month. "It's going to be four days in hospital, laying flat for the first two to three days and then four weeks doing as little as possible."

Obviously, I wish him all the best and he has promised to come back and tell us how it goes. His ambition remains a return to riding in jump races.

"I'll never give up on trying to sort this. My main intention is to get back asap. I'm in regular contact with Jonjo. Until a doctor says there's no more we can possibly do, we'll keep going."

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The Front Runner is our latest email newsletter available exclusively to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. Chris Cook, a four-time Racing Reporter of the Year award winner, provides his take on the day's biggest stories and tips for the upcoming racing every morning from Monday to Friday. Not a Members' Club Ultimate subscriber? Click here to join today and also receive our Ultimate Daily emails plus our full range of fantastic website and newspaper content