Robbie McNamara has credited JT McNamara for helping him to cope with becoming paralysed from the waist down after a fall in Wexford in April this year.
The 26-year-old joined the RTÉ racing panel during Galway Hurdle day coverage and, speaking to Robert Hall and Ted Walsh about coping with his injury.
He said: “It’s going alright, going as well as you can imagine. I still have bad days, but I still have good days. Things are going well, I’m getting fit and strong and getting back doing a bit of work.”
McNamara revealed that he has chosen to replicate his first cousin’s attitude. John Thomas McNamara was paralysed from the neck down after a fall at the 2013 Cheltenham Festival. "I saw how he dealt with it. He was good and manly about it, he took a no-nonsense approach and I try to do the same.
"I had a bit of a hiccup there for a week-and-a-half or two weeks but other than that I try to follow his suit. His attitude and what I saw out of him made it a lot easier for me."
McNamara, who has taken up wheelchair basketball and was recently pictured riding a horse for the first time since his accident spoke frankly about his injury in a recent interview with Irish Racing Post editor Jonathan Mullin.
Didn't think I'd see this sight again pic.twitter.com/pYPG56lsq0
— Robbie McNamara (@RobbiepMcN) July 24, 2015
He added: “It wasn’t the easiest article to do. I had a good chat with Jonathan Mullin for about an hour-and-a-half or two hours. It wasn’t easy at times but I wanted to get it out there rather than people just seeing the good side of it, or think it was all rosy all along.
“People will stop feeling sorry for me hopefully and treat me normally and just get on with it like I’m getting on with it, I’d like them to as well.”
