Leading jockey in Britain Noel Fehily has hit a sudden set back in his recovery to his operation that saw the removal of his appendix close to three weeks ago.
The jockey will be looking to get back on track within the next seven days with 10 days being the most amount of time he wants to miss.
With Cheltenham now growing ever closer with just five weeks until the first day of four stunning days at Prestbury Park, Fehily wants to be in top condition and form ahead of March.
The rider is a multiple winner at the festival and landed the first race at the 2018 Cheltenham festival on board Summerville Boy for trainer Tom George.
On January 12th Fehily underwent emergency keyhole surgery to remove his appendix and all seemed to have gone well with the jockey returning within two weeks having on ride at Huntingdon and then went to Cheltenham for the January trials meeting and rode Black Op to third in the Cleeve Hurdle.
However, after this he started to feel unwell and certainly not how he should of and was readmitted to hospital on the Tuesday.
Doctors found there to be a problem with his small intestines, where there was a small blockage and it looked like he was going to miss Cheltenham with up to a month and a half speculated for him to be on the sidelines.
Fehily is a tough character and will be back thriving again on track in no time but in his absence did miss some crucial rides over this weekend, especially on Special Tiara at Leopardstown where the 12 year old suffered a horrible injury which turned out to be fatal.
He rode the veteran to win in the Champion Chase at the festival and will be sadly missed by the jockey and his other connections.
Fehily over the last few years has showed how much of a reliable and talented jockey he is, gaining over 100 winners in his last three seasons and this season being cluttered with injuries he still has a managed 33.
The 43 year old rider was released from Swindon hospital on Sunday and will recover back home until he is ready to get back in the saddle and be able to compete at the highest level.
(Credit Racing Post) He said: “I'd been feeling fine and wouldn’t have ridden otherwise,” he said of the period leading up to his return to the saddle last week.
“But my surgeon said this is something that can happen after you’ve had your appendix removed, so it wasn’t the case that I went back too soon.
“I was in a lot of pain and was due to undergo surgery on Friday morning, but the snow prevented one surgeon from getting to the hospital and my surgeon then had to prioritise something else. By the time he got to me things had improved so it worked out well, as it was better that things sorted themselves out naturally.
"Fehily added: “In the end the whole thing has taken longer than expected to get over, but I’ve been looked after really well and I’ve turned the corner now, so hopefully I'll be able to ride again in the next week or ten days.”