Jockey Declan Murphy: 'When I came out of the coma I was mentally

Declan Murphy is one of the few people who has had the strange honour of reading his own obituary.

In May 1994, The Racing Post published a front page story with the headline "Declan Murphy Dies After Horror Fall," recounting in full detail incident at Haydock Park that had claimed the life of the accomplished jockey.

The article was accurate in all but one detail: Declan Murphy was not actually dead. He was clinging to life at a nearby London hospital, his skull shattered in twelve places. Days later, as his family prepared to turn off his life support machine, he woke up. A family member kept the newspaper, knowing he might get some enjoyment from it down the line.

It has been 23 years since Declan's devastating fall, but he only feels ready to talk about it now. He has written a new book called 'Centaur', and joined Sean O'Rourke on Wednesday to share his incredible story of resilience.

As he explained, it began during his childhood in Hospital, Co. Limerick, where he became a champion amateur jockey. Though his ambition was to become a lawyer, the famous horse trainer Barney Curley convinced him to move to the UK. "If he had sold carrots I would probably have gone and sold carrots for him," he said.

Declan established himself as one of the most natural and gifted riders of his generation. In the 1993/94 season alone, he had ridden 60 winners. He was in a longterm relationship with Joanna, a fellow horse lover and professional model, and had just put an offer in on his first home. His life, he acknowledged, was pretty good.

The race at Haydock Park was the last big one of the season. It was the Bank Holiday Monday of what had been "a terrible weekend for sport," said Declan. He had been shaken by the death of Formula One racing driver Aryton Senna, who was involved in a fatal crash at the San Marino Grand Prix the day before. "I went to the races with certain misgivings. You never expect your heroes will get killed in action."

"I got to the races and Charlie Swan and I sat in the weighing room and we were just discussing this and realising our own mortality and then going out and riding a race."

The fall is recounted in full detail in Declan's book, pieced together through archive footage and eyewitness accounts. His horse, Arcot, misjudged the jump, cracking his pelvis through hyperextension. Declan was knocked unconscious and thrown to the ground. In a strange twist of fate, Charlie Swan's horse landed on Declan's head, shattering his skull in twelve places.

Declan's girlfriend and family in Ireland watched in horror as the events unfolded on television."The winning horse had passed the winning post and Peter O'Sullivan, the commentator, was still making reference to the fact that I hadn't moved on the ground."

Meanwhile, a silence fell in the jockey's weighing room.

"The doctors walked in with my colours and helmet and put my helmet on the table of the weighing room and the blood started seeping from my helmet and dripping onto the floor. There were some thirty jockeys in the weighing room that were frozen to the spot."

After emergency surgery, Declan was placed on life support. When repeated attempts to wake him up failed, his devastated parents were called from Ireland to be present when the machine was switched off. Declan's father had a fear of flying so they took the boat, delaying their arrival by several hours. Within that time, Declan woke up.

Extraordinarily, Declan can recount in vivid detail what it was like to live in a coma, a place he described as in between life and death. He was "living through his childhood", he said, in a peaceful, serene place. When he woke up, he was convinced he was a child.

"They tried to find out where you are in time to see if you're with them and they were taking me questions…they said who’s the Prime Minister and I said Jack Lynch. They just looked at each other and thought they had no idea what was going on here. They didn't realise when I came out of the coma I was mentally 12 years old."

Doctors believed Declan would be brain damaged and partially paralysed, but he was determined to recover. Many gruelling months followed, where Declan had to relearn to walk, eat, and live independently. "I was in a very deep, dark place," he said.

He became a "madman" obsessed with his recovery. As he wrote in the book, "Belief is self-fulfilling. The more you believe that you can do something, the more you give of yourself to achieve that."

The ordeal also took a toll on Declan's relationship with his girlfriend. After the injury, Joanna had "morphed into a figure from my childhood," he said. He began to see her as a sister rather than a lover. Their relationship broke down, something which Declan still talks about with regret to this day.

Eighteen months after the fall, Declan Murphy announced his return to racing at Chepstow, where he won, naturally. He felt the burden of expectation lift in that moment, and had placed his flag on the mountain. He retired from racing shortly after.

You can listen back to the rest of Declan Murphy's extraordinary interview here.

His new book, Centaur, was co-written with Ami Rao and published by Doubleday.