Broken leg, lacerated spleen - now Adam Nicol's out with fractured vertebrae

Adam Nicol will use Lady Buttons as his motivation to get back in the saddle after the unfortunate rider's injury curse struck again.

Nicol, the regular jockey of the star mare, only returned to action in September following nine months off due to a broken leg, but now he is on the sidelines again with a back injury. It all follows on from previous injuries, including a lacerated spleen, badly broken hand, nose and cheekbone.

Following the fatal fall of Robbing The Prey at Sedgefield on Boxing Day, Nicol initially thought his back was just bruised before discovering he had fractured his L1 and L4 vertebrae.

He met with a specialist on Thursday and is facing up to missing a key part of the season for a second year in a row, with an estimated absence of another nine weeks.

"I'd only been back five minutes from breaking my femur on New Year's Day last year and it's a tough one to take," he said. "Dr Jerry Hill of the BHA said we're probably looking at three months in total. It's really weird as I'm not in a back brace and although I was sore for the first ten days, I don't feel any pain now – it just feels stiff."

Three days after his injury at Sedgefield, Nicol missed out on riding Lady Buttons in a Listed mares' chase at Doncaster, with Tommy Dowson taking over as the Phil Kirby-trained ten-year-old prevailed in a thrilling finish.

It was the second time the jockey had to watch on as Lady Buttons bagged a big race as he was injured when she won a Grade 2 mares' hurdle at Doncaster in January last year.

Nicol is now concentrating on his rehabilitation at Jack Berry House, with the prospect of renewing his partnership with Lady Buttons spurring him on.

"I was delighted for the yard, the owners and the horse, but I had mixed emotions watching her Doncaster win last month," he said. "I've won 12 races on her and for a jockey in the north to get a horse of that ability and class – you couldn't ask for better.

"She was the main reason I came back from my broken femur; she kept me going. That win at Wetherby [in November] was my best day in racing, for what I'd been through to get back."

Having worked hard to return for the start of the winter, Nicol understandably feels a deep sense of frustration about his injury woes.

"I've worked out come this March, I'll have been on the injury list 17 months out of the last 22," he said. "In the last four years, I've broken my cheekbone and nose, needed 13 screws in my hand after breaking it, lacerated my spleen which put me in intensive care for two days, broke my femur and now my back."

Adam Nicol's career in detail

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