Souquet suffered the injury when he was dislodged from his mount in the mounting yard at Tatura on April 19.

He was stood down for the remainder of the meeting after the incident.

“I went and had X-rays after the fall but because my hand was so swollen they couldn’t really notice the fracture,” Souquet said.

“So I just strapped it up and kept on riding.”

Souquet rode in pain at Wagga, Canberra and Wangaratta the following week before undergoing an MRI scan that revealed the extent of the injury.

“I rode at three meetings the following week and then again at the Benalla trials on the Monday,” he said.

“Coming home from Benalla I couldn’t even make a fist so I went and had a MRI scan on it which revealed a small fracture at the base of the thumb.

“But I have also ruptured the ligaments which have come off the bone and require surgery.

“It’s easily the most painful injury I have ever had.”

Souquet will undergo surgery at St Vincent’s Private Hospital in Melbourne today and will miss six to eight weeks.

He won the Southern District jockey premiership last season and was having another successful season before the mishap.

Souquet was firmly entrenched in the top three in the jockey’s title and had ridden more winners than at the corresponding time last year.

“You don’t like to miss any rides but the biggest positive is that it is a hand injury and not a leg,” he said.

“When you do a leg injury is when you put on a stack of weight.

“But I will be able to keep mobile and manage my weight.”