Irish conditional jockey Tommy Dowling is on the road to recovery after his operation, but trainer Charlie Mann has refused to be drawn on putting a timescale on his recovery.

It was initially thought that Dowling would be ruled out for six months after the fall, after he fell from Mann-trained My Anchor at the first flight in a handicap hurdle at Fontwell last Friday.

"He had two steel rods put in his back on Sunday at a hospital in Brighton" he told Sporting Life.

"I don't know how long he's going to be out as he's had a bad fall and broken lots of bones."

Dowling was stretchered off the course and taken to Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton for treatment following the fall.