By Mike Dillon
It's back into the gym bigtime for Lance O'Sullivan.
That's the message O'Sullivan got when All Black physio David Abercrombie examined the champion jockey's damaged leg.
At the suggestion of a friend, O'Sullivan went to see Abercrombie, who felt a virtually weightless titanium and aluminium knee brace might be the answer to stabilising the pain in O'Sullivan's knee when he rode in races.
O'Sullivan found immediate comfort, but declared the brace too bulky to ride in.
What he came away with was a whole raft of leg-strengthening exercises to rebuild the muscle wastage and damage a horror race fall, several operations and 14 months on the sideline have done to a once super-strong jockey.
"You're short of 40 per cent in strength in the leg," said Abercrombie, who has offered assistance to O'Sullivan's Matamata physiotherapist Janet Wagstaff.
O'Sullivan did not look to be short on anything riding the winners of the two group one races at Trentham last Saturday and admits he thought his hours in the gym were at an end.
"I'd fallen into the trap of thinking `I'm riding work from 4.30 am each morning and riding in races, that's enough to bring me right,' but I know now it's not."
Abercrombie said O'Sullivan's injuries, where the four knee ligaments virtually give no support, are similar to those suffered by retired All Black Michael Jones.
Jones had his knee operated on but O'Sullivan says he's been through so much in that field he'll do everything he can to avoid it.
"I know I can strengthen the leg and with the pain diminishing I should be able to get to a point where I can ride on for a long period without the thought of further operations.
"I don't care what I have to do in the weight-training field, I'll do it if it means no more operations."
In an attempt to make a clean sweep of the group one races at the Wellington carnival, O'Sullivan rides the likely favourite Oregon Power in tomorrow's $150,000 Thorndon Mile and Honourable in the $300,000 Wellington Cup.
Pictured: Champion jockey Lance O'Sullivan assumes his riding position to try out a brace. HERALD PICTURE / GLENN JEFFREY
Horse Racing: Jockey riding weights to beat pain
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