Alan Dempsey looks set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines after sustaining facial injuries in a nasty spill at Newcastle on Saturday.
The jockey was unshipped by Hutch at the ninth fence of the Guinness Handicap Chase, at which point fellow pilot Stephen Craine was brought down on Ideal Du Bois Beury.
Craine suffered a suspected broken wrist while Dempsey sustained bruising and fractures, but his brain scan thankfully revealed no major problems.
‘Alan has a fracture to his lower skull,’ explained agent Richard Hale.
‘He has fractured his eye socket and he has an eye specialist looking at that today. They may have to operate and clear up a few fragments that are floating around, and he's broken his cheek bone as well so he's not very good at the moment.
‘He obviously had a serious facial injury a couple of years back too but his brain scan was fine.
‘He had slight bruising there but no more than that so that's the positive sign of things.’
