If you were in any doubt about the hardship National Hunt jockeys endure this Paddy Power infographic on Ruby Walsh’s injury tally will clear it right up.
Paddy Power term Ruby Walsh ‘Iron Man’ today and it is hard to disagree when you look at this. The bookie spoke to the top jockey and he, typically, played down his bravery.
“There’s lots of tough sports-people but there are plenty of soft ones as well,” he tells Paddy. “Hurlers are incredibly tough sports-men. They don’t wear shin-guards and you can see someone break a hurling stick across Henry Shefflin’s shin and the guy won’t even break stride. Then you watch someone brush off an International football player and he rolls around like his head is going to fall off. There are tough sports-people and soft sports-people.”
We’re pretty sure which camp Ruby is in and in light of the recent life-changing injury suffered by JT McNamara, this level of bravery is even more awe inspiring.
Check out more from his interview on the Paddy Power blog and hat-tip to Melissa Stolberg for the design of the graphic.
