As if severe facial injuries following a fall from a horse were not bad enough, jockey Chris Meehan sustained a broken leg when an ambulance sent to assist drove over him.
Meehan was participating in a hurdle race in the Italian town of Merano when he was unsaddled and subsequently kicked in the face by his mount, according to reports.
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The impact broke Meehan's nose and left a gash in his jaw which required 27 stitches, but there was worse to come when the medics arrived on the scene.
"The starter came over to help me because I was on my back and choking on my blood," the 22-year-old told The Racing Post. "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 onto 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," Meehan said, adding. "What makes it worse is my father, brother, auntie, they're all ambulance people. 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."
Meehan will undergo surgery on his leg and face and is expected to be out of action for at least two months.