RUBY WALSH’S BID to be fit in time for next week’s Punchestown Festival has proved unsuccessful, after the Kildare jockey today confirmed he has not made enough progress in his rehabilitation from a fractured leg.
Walsh has not raced since he suffered a heavy fall on the second day of last month’s Cheltenham Festival and although he hoped to be back for Punchestown, an X-ray showed his right leg has not yet fully healed.
“My surgeon was happy with the progress my leg is making and how it’s healing but he wasn’t happy enough to let me ride next week,” he said, speaking to Paddy Power.
“Such is life, there’s not a whole lot I can do about it.”
The 38-year-old had only just returned from four months on the sideline with a similar injury before suffering the fall in the RSA Chase aboard Al Boum Photo.
Walsh then missed the Grand National meeting at Aintree earlier this month and will sit out his home festival at Punchestown, which runs from next Tuesday to Saturday.
“I hoped to be back in time for Punchestown but it’s just come a couple of weeks too soo I had hoped my leg would be better than it is by now,” he added.
“But you can be bloody sure I’ll be doing all I can to get back in the new season as early as I can.
“It hasn’t come as a surprise. I could have guessed what I was going to be told because I knew from walking on it. My surgeon wasn’t happy so I have to do what I’m told at some stage in my life.”
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