Jockey retires after being warned one more concussion could kill him

A jockey has announced that he has retired from racing after being warned that another head injury could prove fatal. Blake Spriggs, 33, who has ridden nearly 700 winners over a 16-year career, narrowly escaped death in a horrific fall in January when the horse he was riding tripped over the heels of another during a race at Moruya in Australia.

He was airlifted to hospital alongside fellow jockey Beany Panya, who was also seriously injured in the same incident. She soon underwent spinal surgery and has not yet returned to racing.

Spriggs, whose partner is reality TV star KC Osborne, known for her appearance on the show Married At First Sight, was in a critical condition for a number of days.

He sustained a fractured collarbone and left forearm, dislocated left elbow, numerous rib fractures, both lungs collapsed haemorrhaging to his liver, his kidneys also shut down and he had bruising to his brain.

"Essentially, I was on the track drowning in my own blood but the paramedics saved my life,'' Spriggs revealed to Racenet. "I was rushed to hospital and KC was told to prepare for the worst as they were not sure I was going to make it.

"I don't have any memory of that as I was heavily sedated for about two weeks. When they tried to bring me out of sedation the machines would start going off so they had to keep putting me back under.

"I realised I was in a bad way but the doctors and nurses at Canberra Hospital were amazing,'' he said. "I almost died doing my job and they saved mine doing theirs. It says a lot about these people."

Spriggs has been informed that it could take up to three years for his brain to recover and he has accepted his neurosurgeon's advice not to return to horse riding.

"I have micro-bleeds on the brain and my neurologist advised me if I sustained another concussion it would basically kill me,'' Spriggs added.

"It puts everything into perspective. I was walking into that appointment with the theory I would not be riding again anyway. But that advice has left me with no thought of whether I should try to return.

"Now I look at it like my son, Brooklyn, gets a father and that's the most important thing. I nearly wasn't here, I was as close as you get to going without going."

This article originally appeared on Mirror