JASON Maguire bowed to the inevitable on Thursday and announced his retirement from riding. The popular jump jockey (36), winner of well over 1,000 races, including the Grand National, never made a full recovery from a fall at Musselburgh in February 2015.

He suffered slipped discs but had reached the stage where he was riding out on a regular basis. However, ongoing problems with a sciatic nerve meant that he was unable to satisfy the BHA’s medical team. Extremely unfortunate with injuries, he might have died a year before the Musselburgh incident when a fall at Stratford brought a fractured sternum and necessitated the removal of part of his liver.

From Kilmessan in Co Meath, Maguire won the 2011 Aintree spectacular on Ballabriggs for Donald McCain. He rode five Grade 1 winners and in 2012-13 finished runner-up to A.P. McCoy in the jockeys’ championship with a tally of 144.

“The decision was made for me because I have a trapped nerve in my back that was making my right leg numb and giving me what felt like electric shocks in my foot,’’ Maguire said.

A nephew of former jockey now trainer Adrian Maguire, he is acting as racing manager to owners Paul and Clare Rooney, who have extensive bloodstock interests and horses in training in Ireland and Britain.

Maguire enjoyed Cheltenham successes on Galileo (2002), Peddlers Cross (2010), Cinders And Ashes (2012) and Son Of Flicka (2012).