Former jockey Declan Murphy suffered a near-fatal racing accident 23 years ago, which left him with a severely fractured skull and two blood clots on the brain.
For days after the accident, it didn't look like Declan would pull through. He says, "I wasn't expected to come out of my coma and they tried to revive me on three occasions." But thanks to a brave surgical intervention, he survived.
The recovery process took a long time, and it's something that Declan has now relived for a new book, Centaur, co-written with Ami Rao, which he says has been "the hardest thing I've had to do in my life." As well as the physical effects of the accident, he suffered from memory loss and hallucinations. He has no recollection of many of his greatest moments in racing, which required him to undertake research on his own life and "put the pieces together."
Declan spoke to Matt about the book, his recovery and his racing comeback just 18 months after the accident.
Listen to the full interview below:
