Michelle Payne couldn't walk and vomited "all day, every day" after concussion

20 April 2023 , 10:12

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Michelle Payne: opened up on her experience of concussion (Image: Rex)

History-making jockey Michelle Payne has revealed that she vomited “all day, every day” after one of the several concussions she has suffered during her career.

The 37-year-old Payne, the only female jockey to win Australia’s biggest race the Melbourne Cup, opened up on the scale of the health challenges she has faced after falls.

Payne rode the 100-1 chance Prince Of Penzance to victory in ‘the race that stops a nation’ in 2015 famously telling those who had doubted her ability to “get stuffed”.

Her story was made into a movie, Ride Like A Girl, which was released in 2019.

Payne, who has ridden 767 winners but is also a trainer, has suffered six major concussions during her career and fractured her skull when she was 18.

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"After the fall I was so bad that I couldn't walk on my own, I had to write everything down that I had to do each day," she told News Corp.

"I was not right, I was really depressed for months. I thought I was never going to be normal again – I knew what normal was, but I knew that I wasn't.”

Payne said it took her three months to recover but detailed other severe concussions she has experienced since after falls.

Michelle Payne became the only female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup in 2015 (GETTY)

"I was sent home with a fracture to my C2 and in a neck brace and at 2am the next morning I was on the floor of the bathroom and vomiting and shaking and it was really awful,” she said.

"The next few days I couldn't stop sleeping and that was also a worry because in some concussions you don't wake up. But I couldn't help it.

"After other concussions, I vomited all day, every day for four days. Sometimes making a five-minute journey in the car took 30 minutes to stop to be sick every 50 metres or so before we could move again.

"It ended up my sister took me to my doctor and he gave me some strong painkillers and that helped but I still vomited and was icing my head because my brain felt so sore as if it was swollen.

"Probably looking back, I think I should have been kept in hospital under supervision for these concussions and that would be the only thing I would say they could probably do better."

Jon Lees