Mick Fitzgerald was taken to hospital for precautionary X-rays on his left shoulder following a heavy fall from Chalkie Run in the concluding Newbury Golf `Pay `n` Play` Novices` Hurdle this afternoon.
The Irishman, who is due to partner Fadalko in Saturday`s Thomas Pink Gold Cup at Cheltenham along with a number of other high profile rides, held a clear lead on Chalkie Run when the Nicky Henderson-trained gelding hit the deck at the second last hurdle.
Fitzgerald walked away from the incident but was later checked over by a racecourse doctor in the weighing room and told that he should have the injury X-rayed at Newbury General Hospital.
The jockey, in obvious pain, said: 'I feel as if I`ve had a very bad bump and something might be sitting on a nerve. The shoulder`s very sore but I don`t think it`s broken.'
However Fitzgerald`s boss Henderson was fearing the worst. He disconsolately said: 'We are ready to fire some very serious guns over the weekend and now it looks like I might not have a jockey.
'It never rains but it pours as the horse was obviously going to go very close to winning. I`ve had Inca break a leg on the gallops last Saturday and another horse, also owned by Trevor Hemmings, called Kingara, also broke his leg today.'
