Jockey kicked in face by horse, then run over by ambulance

Jockey Chris Meehan copped a kick to the face from a horse. Photo / Getty

It was a day of anything but luck for Irish jockey Chris Meehan on Sunday.

It was bad enough that Meehan fell off during a hurdles race in Italy and was kicked in the face by his horse - knocking him out and leaving him with a broken nose and gash in his jaw requiring 27 stitches - but to add injury to insult his leg was broken when the ambulance that came to assist him reversed over it.

But there's another twist.

"What makes it worse is my father, brother, auntie - they're all ambulance people," Meehan told the UK's Racing Post. "My father actually teaches most people in Northern Ireland and England how to drive the ambulance. It's bizarre, you couldn't make it up."

Jockey Chris Meehan shows off his scars. Photo / Twitter

Meehan was due to return home to have surgery on both his leg and face and is expected to be sidelined for two months. The entire episode sounds like the plot from a bad movie.

"The starter came over to help me because I was on my back and choking on my blood," Meehan explained. "He put me in the recovery position, with my right leg out straight.

"As if that wasn't bad enough, the racecourse ambulance came up alongside us and reversed up on to my leg. They stopped it on top of my leg so I started screaming. It broke it straight away.

"Everyone around me had to push it off me. You have to laugh, really."