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One of Britain's most successful female jockeys is facing several weeks out of action after undergoing surgery to correct degenerative hearing loss. Josephine Gordon was crowned champion apprentice in 2016 and the following year became only the second female rider to pass 100 winners in a season.

Over subsequent seasons the 32-year-old began to realise she has having trouble hearing in her right ear. Several doctors appointments proved inconclusive until she had a free hearing test at a high street optician in Newmarket which revealed she was partially deaf. Since then Gordon has had to be fitted with hearing aids, which jockeys are not allowed to wear when riding in races.

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"It began first in the right ear and then two years ago it started in my left ear,” Gordon told Mirror Online. "It’s something that normally happens when you’re older but for some reason because I am younger it has been developing a lot quicker. It’s a condition called otosclerosis.

“To start off with, it wasn't too bad when I was riding, and when I got the first hearing aid I didn’t really like wearing it.

“But when you’re racing you have to be able to hear everything around you and when it came to having two hearing aids I realised things were becoming a lot more difficult. I’m not allowed to race with hearing aids under the rules.”

Gordon, who has ridden 429 winners, underwent the 90 minute surgery after her last ride on January 12 and it may be several weeks until she can return to the saddle.

“During the operation they replaced bone with a plastic pin. That needs to settle down as any pressure could cause it to dislodge.

“At the moment I am doing the bare minimum. The first two weeks I’ve not really been doing anything and then over the next few weeks I will be doing gentle walking. The main thing is to find my balance again.”

She continued: “Thank God the operation has worked and the hearing in my right ear now is pretty good. I am still wearing hearing aids now. I will probably have them for the rest of life as my hearing will never be back to full capacity.

"In the future I could have an implant, which connects to your brain, but for now, this surgery has helped a lot. At some point I will have surgery on the left ear, but they don’t do both at the same time, and the left ear isn’t as bad as the right was.”