THE 'IMPATIENT PATIENT' IS GETTING CLOSER TO A COMEBACK. THE JIM BYRNE SHOULDER INJURY STORY

By Graham Potter | Monday, May 6, 2019

Jim Byrne is one tough, hard-working jockey who doesn’t take kindly to having to endure an injury enforced layoff away from his usual hectic workload. That has been the case of late though and it was good to see him at the Eagle Farm midweek last week, simply glowing in anticipation of a return to what he does best. Not that he is there just yet and you can imagine there will be some interesting exchanges between him and his doctor in the coming weeks about when the green light should go on. Jim takes up the story, speaking to HRO’s Graham Potter.

“A number of months ago I was at trackwork and I fell off a horse … Malvern Estate. He whipped around on me a reefed my arm out.

“It hurt pretty bad but, as we always do as jockeys, I took some pain killers. I went to the doctor and got a cortisone shot in my shoulder and the pain subsided with that. Unfortunately, though, it was only masking the issue and, whilst I was able to continue racing for a couple of months, eventually it just popped.

“It popped on a race-day but it was actually at trackwork that morning when I though, ahh geez, my arm doesn’t feel good today. Sure enough, it was just getting closer and closer … and then it just popped in a race.

“What it was is that I tore the muscle off the bone. I ruptured the bicep tendon … which meant I basically had to have a shoulder reconstruction.

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“Where I am at now … I went back to the doctor last Tuesday. I’m still getting a fair bit of pain in the bicep tendon. The muscle is no problem at all. The muscle is perfect … but it is the tendon that remains a problem.

“You just have to rest the shoulder. I don’t like taking any inflammatories. Obviously, as jockeys, we don’t eat a lot so they can play havoc on your stomach.

“What I’ve ended up with is that I just have to put up with it kind of thing. So, it is inflamed constantly. You are icing it all of the time … and I am a very inpatient patient.

Like I said, I went back to the doctor last Tuesday. He basically said … ok, go to trackwork. Start testing it and see where it is at. He said he was happy with it structurally. It was sound.

“As far as the pain side of it was concerned, he sent me down for a scan … an ultrasound and they injected it with cortisone again to take the inflammation out of it again. So, I left him with fingers crossed for trackwork, which I went to on Thursday morning.

“I came through trackwork, where I rode three horses, about as well as I could expect. I still need to improve the strength but I am getting there.”

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“I’m raring to go but obviously you don’t want to too early.

“It is a balancing act.

“The tendon is obviously not something I can rush. It is still at the stage where it has to been taken week by week.

“I said I would be back in three months … and we are sitting at about that now.

“Even though the doctor has allowed me to carefully test the shoulder at trackwork, he still wants me make sure I don’t do anything too strenuous for … he says … four-and-a-half months.

"I’m willing to give the doctor another month to take it four … but I’ll be fighting against giving him any more time than that.

“I’m obviously not going to be stupid about it though because I know every time I have done some hard work I have suffered that night. I can’t sleep properly … but my return is not far off. I know that.

“I want to be around for some part the carnival at least.
“If I can’t … well, then I can’t but it won’t be for any lack of effort on my part.”

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