Jockey Michael Cahill says moon boot the cause of fall down stairs

As he recovers from a fall down the stairs in his home, jockey Michael Cahill has revealed what caused the accident and how long it will take before he returns to racing.

MICHAEL Cahill is counting his blessings after escaping serious injury from a fall down his stairs which knocked him unconscious on Sunday night.

The popular jockey was back at home on Thursday, recovering from the fall which put him in intensive care.

“I’m not too bad. It gave (wife) Maxine and the kids a fright,” Cahill said.

“I’m on the mend now. At first the doctors were concerned about a bleed to the brain, but that’s not the case and the scans have come back clear, thank God.

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“I was pretty ordinary Monday and even Tuesday, but into Wednesday I started to recover.”

Cahill has been recovering from an injury in his right foot and part of the healing has been to wear a moon boot and that’s what led to the fall.

Jockey Michael Cahill says his moon boot is what caused him to tumble down the stairs. Picture: AAP Image/Albert Perez

“We’ve got polished wooden stairs at home and when I first got this moon boot on, I slipped the first couple of days,” he said.

“So I started to take it off to go up and down the stairs, but I got complacent, it was late Sunday night and I left it on to go back down the stairs.

“I knocked myself clean out.”

Cahill said it left him with “a good gash” on the back of his head and has probably delayed his return by a couple of weeks after he had announced only on Sunday he would be riding at the George Moore Stakes meeting on November 30.

Michael Cahill poses with the trophy after riding The Bostonian to victory in the Doomben 10,000 earlier this year.

“I need to give myself a bit of time, but my gut feeling is that I’m going to recover pretty quick (from the fall),” he said.

“I won’t rush though. I have a bit of fitness to make up because I’ve been physically inactive the last four weeks.”

As for the moon boot, it has to go back on, “but I’m not going up any stairs.”

“I just want to thank all the people who have sent messages and asked about my well-being. I greatly appreciate the support I’ve received from so many people,” Cahill said.

The jockey is scheduled to see doctors this afternoon to get an update on his foot injury, which will give him a more certain time of when he can aim to be back riding.

Originally published as Jockey Michael Cahill says moon boot the cause of fall down stairs