FRANKIE DETTORI could be facing months on the side lines stretching well beyond next week's Royal Ascot festival after undergoing an operation to wire his broken elbow yesterday.
Dettori came out of the operating theatre unconscious but in a comfortable condition after Richard Dodds, the orthopaedic surgeon, had performed an operation to wire together the broken bones.
Although Ascot's Royal meeting next week is an obvious casualty, there was also a cloud cast over his participation in some of the rest of the season's major events Sandown's Eclipse Stakes, Glorious Goodwood, Newmarket's July meeting, the Ebor at York and Ascot for the King George could all fall within his recuperation period.
Speaking from Sandown yesterday, his boss and trainer John Gosden, said Frankie is very pleased with the way it went and his spirit's all right. He's had the elbow wired but he is going to be out for some time. You can't come back from that in a hurry. It's certainly not a short term injury.
"Frankie fell off his bike when he was a youngster and broke the other arm so he says he's nicely balanced now," the trainer added.
Dettori's injury has given the Godolphin set up a major headache as regards who will now partner their runners at Ascot next week, but a spokeswoman, yesterday confirmed. "Plans about who will ride the Godolphin runners at the Royal meeting have not yet been fixed. We should be able to make an announcement on Sunday morning."
