Further medical examinations this week will determine whether champion driver Daryl Douglas needs facial surgery after a horror crash at Ballarat on Wednesday.
But one thing is for sure, Douglas won’t be back race driving in the next six weeks.
Douglas was tipped out driving On The Lure in race five at Ballarat and a trailing horse stood on the upper half of his face in the melee.
That has left him with fractured eye sockets and cheekbones, which doctors initially thought would require an operation.
But after being transferred to the trauma ward in Melbourne, Douglas was released on Friday morning to recover at home over the weekend.
“Basically there was so much swelling the doctors said they would have to wait until it went down to make a decision about an operation,” said his brother, trainer Glenn Douglas.
“And they said he might as well do that at home then go back to see them on Monday or Tuesday so they can assess things.
“We were told originally he would definitely need an operation but apparently they aren’t too unhappy with where the bones are at.
“So as long as they stay where they are then they might let them heal without an operation.”
Douglas said his 39-year-old brother was going to have to “eat through a straw” for the next six weeks so will not be able to drive for at least that long.
“So I don’t really know how long he will be out of the sulky.
“He is a tough bugger though. One of the problems he had early was that he didn’t want to take the painkillers but once he did they helped to bring the swelling down.”
And as brothers will tend to do, Glenn was willing to start ribbing his brother even when he was down.
“It was a terrible thing to happen and I felt bad when I saw him.
“But now I know he is going to be all right I am going to waste no time telling him this makes me definitely the best looking out of the two of us now.”
The incident was the second race smash involving one of Victoria’s biggest names in a few days, with Chris Alford injured, luckily not as seriously, at Shepparton last Saturday.
Ironically, the injury to Douglas leaves Alford in a dominant position on the state driver’s premiership as he had been three wins in front of his arch-rival, with the pair well clear of Gavin Lang and Greg Sugars
