Joining Off The Ball to discuss his Grand National memories on the day the famous race ought to have been taking place, former jockey Mick Fitzgerald reflected on the moment that his career in the saddle came to an end. 

The winning jockey of the 1996 Grand National, it was in the same race 12 years on that Mick Fitzgerald's career in the saddle came to a halt.

Although he can't have known it then as a 37-year-old going on 38, the injuries he sustained after falling from L'Ami could very nearly have cost him a lot more, as he recalled on Off The Ball's 'Saturday Panel.'

"I can remember everything," he explained of the fateful day, "and I'd actually thought that the horse had a good chance [of winning] because he'd been round the previous year when AP [McCoy] had ridden him.

"He jumped the first really well, went to the second and just met it on a nice stride but for whatever reason, and he was a brilliant jumper, [the horse] just had a blank and did nothing."

"He literally headbutted the fence and I can remember that in those days there was a lot of timber framing on the bottom. When he hit that, I knew it was going to hurt."

Despite Mick Fitzgerald's best efforts at limiting the damage that would be done, however, it was already out of his hands.

"You're almost getting yourself ready to get into a ball," he explained. "But it was just as if somebody had pressed an ejector button and you're gone.

"I woke up on the ground, and I couldn't feel anything."

Jockey Mick Fitzgerald is stretchered of the course after falling on L'ami in the John Smith's Grand National Handicap Chase in the Grand National Meeting at Aintree Racecourse, Liverpool.

Where fear had been anathema to his life as a professional jockey, it took hold in this moment of immense uncertainty.

"I was the sort of fella who wasn't afraid of man or beast," he admitted, "but in that moment, I was scared. I couldn't feel my legs, my arms and all I could think about were my two kids.

"It was only two young boys at the time and it was amazing to me how everything else faded away and that was all that mattered to me.

"Luckily, I had damaged my spinal chord, but it had only had a severe bang. But, it took me quite a long time to get over it."

L'Ami ridden by Mick Fitzgerald prior to the John Smith's Grand National Handicap Chase.

Stretchered from the racecourse in Aintree, it would take a few more months before any official word on Mick Fitzgerald's career emerged.

Although he had already enjoyed great success in the saddle, this premature conclusion - combined with a lengthy period of recuperation - was not something that he always dealt with superbly.

"I had a lot of dark days," he said, "and I don't mind admitting it.

"The following year, I lost a lot of weight, I was getting a lot of fevers and I was thinking that things weren't quite as they should be.

"I kept going to the hospital but they kept saying there was nothing wrong with me and in the end they actually found out that I had MRSA, which nearly killed me.

"I had a hole in my esophagus which took seven operations to fix, and the idea of what horse is going to win the next race pales into significance then.

"Here I was being fed through a tube going into my stomach, having intravenous injections every day for nine months, so, it wasn't easy, but, you know what, I got through it and a lot of that is down to my family."

With his two sons older now and a daughter thrown into the mix for good measure, Mick Fitzgerald, far from harbouring any regrets about his lost years in the saddle, is simply delighted he remains in good enough health to enjoy his time with his family.

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