Tom Cooper is confident Forpadydeplasterer will return to the fray in the spring.

Although last season's Arkle hero will miss the Queen Mother Champion Chase, Cooper expects the eight-year-old to have made a full recovery by the time of the Punchestown Festival in April.

Forpadydeplasterer is lame after suffering a recurrence of a niggling foot injury.

The County Kerry handler said: "He will be fine as it's not like a tendon problem.

"We thought we had the problem solved as it had been treated over the last few weeks.

"But it flared up again and on Friday he was pretty sore.

"It's a problem we'd have probably sorted out in the next 10 days, but that would have left us short of time.

"Because of that I really have to rule out Cheltenham, but we'll look at Punchestown now."