IT MIGHT STILL ONLY BE SMALL STEPS BUT MATTHEW MCGILLIVRAY IS ON HIS WAY BACK TO THE TRACK

By Matthew McGillivray with Graham Potter | Tuesday, August 11, 2020

On the evening on May 27, Matthew McGillivray suffered serious injuries in a race-fall at the Sunshine Coast. His rehab period is now pushing three months but McGillivray is now slowly coming out of this forced period of inaction. It will still need small steps but the good news is that McGillivray is on his way back to the track and, in his own words, he ‘can’t wait to get back into it.’ McGillivray spoke to HRO’s Graham Potter and gave the back-story into what has been a long two-and-a-half months.

“Early last week I went to see my sports and spine physiologist. He was my last appointment to figure out whether I was ready to go or not and, in that regard, and it was all good. I passed with flying colours. My movement was all good … and so the physio was then going to ring the neurosurgeon I have been dealing with because he is the one who ultimately has to give me my clearance.

“The physio said that I was pretty much cleared and good to go back to riding but the neuro has to make the final report.

“I'm obviously really looking forward to getting back into it. I can’t wait to get back into it but, because I’ve done nothing at all since the fall … and I mean nothing at all … I’ve got no muscle strength or overall fitness like I need to have, so I will have to get back into it very slowly.

“I’d probably ride maybe two or three on the first morning and then step it up after a few mornings to four or five and then hopefully start doing fast work the week after once I get a bit of fitness going. I’ve still got to make certain that everything is alright as I move forward.

“At the moment it appears that it is. I have done a memory test, a reaction test and all of that kind of stuff and, yeah, everything is sweet in that sense.

Obviously, it is a bit different when you are sitting on a horse. That’s a different ball-game and I want to ride the quieter horses at the start to help me transition and get back into the groove again … but look, I reckon in about two-and-a-half weeks I should be doing jump-outs and trials and almost race riding again.

“Jump-outs and trials … I might leave it at five or six … and race-days maybe start with two or three rides or so. I won’t be rushing it but I will be looking to move things along where I can.”
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“To be honest I was very down throughout the whole time I have been off. It’s very frustrating being a sportsman and not being able to participate. As I say, I was literally doing nothing. I couldn’t even drive until last week.

“It was just a ridiculous situation for me. I’m not the kind of person to sit behind a desk at a computer in a room and work. I need to be out there doing something. When racing people talk about racing, they say it’s their life … and that is what it is. To be out of it is not good.

“You do watch the races when you shouldn’t really. You can’t help it but it just brings you even lower because you feel bad when you think you should have been out there riding with them … particularly when you miss out on rides during the carnival, like I did with Vanna Girl in the Roses.

“Prior to the fall I was very keen on winning that Group 2 but, it is what it is.

“You do feel it but you just have to move on.”
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“I don’t remember anything at all about the fall … but I have seen the replay. In fact, it seems my memory blacked out from the 800m (although the fall only took place in the home straight).

“I think it was a mile race. I do remember the first half of the race … I remember in the back straight they were running along. I also remember talking to Jake Bayliss actually between about the 1400m to the 1000m saying … geez they are running quick … surely, we are going to hit the line here … and he went, yeah, they are running along here. I remember that and the race until the 800m and then my memory from there is gone. I have no memory of what happened after that.

“Watching the fall on reply though, it looked like I was knocked out even before I hit the ground.”
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“I was hospitalised for five, six days after the fall. It was my neck (that’s when they put the neck brace on me) and, initially, I had some bleeding on the brain and a little fracture to the skull. I was very lucky in that the bleeding on the brain was very minor. There was a little haematoma which got better with every passing day.

“I think that got better within a couple of weeks. It wasn’t getting any worse at any stage and that is what they were looking at and monitoring closely making sure that it was all coming good.

“But, talk about frustration. I was in a neck brace for four or five days. It was awkward. It was painful … especially when you try and go to sleep. Maybe more than frustrating. It was just very annoying and it does your head in.

“My first week, when I had the brace, I was in the horrors actually … can’t sleep, can’t do much. I was feeling pretty down.

“About a week after I was back out of hospital, I had to go to RBWH to do scans and MRI’s and all of that.

“Just on the back of my neck … to the left side … there was a little bone that was affecting me. I could only turn my head about forty-five degrees to the left and no more. I couldn’t see my blind spot at all so that’s why they didn’t let me drive.

“It was only during the last two or three weeks that I could have full movement … left and right … without feeling that neck pain.

“So, the main problem ended up being my neck and back and my restricted movement. Even at the times I thought my mind was good, my body still wasn’t good at all. I had no flexibility or anything like that.
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“It's been a long process. For a good part there it was also an unknown process in terms of how long my rehabilitation would take.

“My doctor sent me to a private specialist. From a patient’s point of view, it seems like they are trying to prolong the situation, but obviously they are only trying to make sure that they do the best for you. Making appointments … having to fall in where the next appointment is available, and sometimes that is a month later … appears to draw out the process so that was a problem for me as well.

“But, in fairness, my brain wasn’t right then anyway. I couldn’t think straight for about three weeks. When I was speaking to people, I couldn’t seem to remember what I had said previously … even a couple of hours ago … and I would say, ‘I didn’t say that … that’s not what I said,’ but I actually had said those things before. People had to be patient with me.

“You have to remind yourself to try and be strong mentally but, to be honest, I’m not very mentally strong when I am in that position. My wife and son go out to work and day-care. I was lucky in that my manager, Mitchell Speers, would come around and be company for me and take me out … whether is was to the driving range or whatever.

“I couldn’t hit the ball but at least I was out there and Mitch was just sort of helping me out in getting around and staying motivated instead of sitting home and being down … so that was good.

“So, it has been a tough couple of months since the fall.

“I can’t wait to get back into it.”

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