Johnson to returm on Thursday

Leading jump jockey Richard Johnson was today given the go-ahead to return to action on Thursday after almost exactly three months on the sidelines.

And he is already looking forward to being reunited with his 2000 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Looks Like Trouble, who made his own successful return from injury at Wincanton last Saturday.

The scene of his comeback depends on whether his agent Dave Roberts finds him a mount at Plumpton or at Warwick, which both stage jumps cards on Thursday.

Johnson was cleared to resume after his doctor examined X-rays on the leg the rider broke in a fall at Exeter late-October.

After his appointment, Johnson said: 'It went great and hopefully I will be back on Thursday, if they can find me a mount.

'Then I may go to Doncaster on Friday and hopefully Cheltenham on Saturday, when Philip Hobbs has quite a few entered.

'I am very pleased and hopefully I can look forward to the rest of the season.

'My leg feels very good. A broken leg does not heal completely in three months but it looks all right on the X-ray. You can see where it was and you can see the new bone and the doctor`s very pleased with it.

'I have been riding out for six days and the leg feels great _ though I am rather stiff in the morning because I haven`t ridden for six months!'

Johnson, 24, has been stuck on 81 winners for 2001/2 since he broke his right leg when Ilico II fell fatally at the fourth fence in a novice chase at Exeter on October 23.

But it was only today that Mick Fitzgerald overtook him in second place, a long way behind Tony McCoy, in the jockeys` table and he said: 'I shall have to put that right! Second place is worth fighting for.

'I haven`t set any targets but I want to reach 100 winners again and I want to ride as many winners as I can before the end of the season.

'Looks Like Trouble won on Saturday and I am looking forward to riding him again and there is Flagship Uberalles in the Champion Chase so that is two to look forward to at Cheltenham.'