KIEREN FALLON HAS announced his retirement from racing.
The 51-year-old only returned to the saddle in Europe this season but suffered a fall on the gallops which, along with suffering from “quite profound depression”, prompted his decision today.
Fallon was champion jockey on no fewer than six occasions and won 16 British Classics including three wins apiece in the Epsom Derby and Oaks.
Turf Club chief medical officer Dr Adrian McGoldrick said that Fallon was suffering from depression and had asked him to make a statement on the jockey’s behalf.
McGoldrick said:
“Kieren is suffering from severe depression. When he came to me before getting his licence to ride this year it was clear he was suffering from depression and I treated him with anti-depressants.
“He told me that he hadn’t intended to make a comeback but decided to do so having been encouraged by Michael (O’Callaghan). But he rang me last week and said his situation had got worse.
I met him and on Sunday he told me he didn’t feel strong enough to speak to anyone in the media about his situation and asked me to speak on his behalf.
“He told me that he has lost the motivation to continue his riding career and wanted people to know about his decision to retire. He said it was time to move on once his depression has been managed.
“In recent years he found himself suffering from profound fatigue but nothing physically wrong was found when doctors examined him.”
If you need to talk, contact:
- Samaritans 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org
- Console 1800 247 247 – (suicide prevention, self-harm, bereavement)
- Aware 1800 80 48 48 (depression, anxiety)
- Pieta House 01 601 0000 or email mary@pieta.ie – (suicide, self-harm)
- Teen-Line Ireland 1800 833 634 (for ages 13 to 19)
- Childline 1800 66 66 66 (for under 18s)
Argentina fell apart in the second half .. 10000 of their supporters in the stadium , tough to swallow . But in the end it’ll have no bearing World Cup wise .
@Limón Madrugada: going on the last 20 years of Argentina massively underachieving, i think you are right.
@Limón Madrugada: They’ll do nothing in the world cup. They’re the south American English
@Carl Johnson: yeah you’re probably right but my comment was more directed at the Spanish team . Beating Argentina in a friendly at home doesn’t mean anything for Spain’s WC possibilities …
@Limón Madrugada: I’d disagree tbh. They’ll go in with confidence
@Limón Madrugada: some of their football was fantastic last night
@Carl Johnson: They made it to the final last time out. Calling them England is a bit harsh.
If messi somehow drags this team to lift the world cup he will be the greatest of all time by a country mile. I’d love to see him do it.
Argentina squad is so unbalanced. Probably best forward options of any team in world football but defensively they are a mess.
@Gareth Kennan: the more I see of Argentina the more I’m impressed by messi dragging these bums to the World Cup, some great attacking talent but a mess in midfield and defense, even in attacking they have maybe too similarly minded players. Aguero in particular has never showed up for Argentina and never gets criticized for it as its all directed at messi, the less said about higuain the better
I couldn’t believe in the commentary on TV and again in this article how nobody has mentioned how badly at fault De Gea was for the Argentina goal. If it was one of the English keepers, they’d be slaughtered forevermore for it.
@Adrian O’Farrell: quite simply it’s a regular thing for English keeps and not for De Gea
@Johnny Bravo: True. Not saying he’s a bad keeper, far from it. But it’s like when you get to his level, your errors just get ignored. Which is wrong.