Luke Morris avoids serious injury in Doncaster stalls incident

Luke Morris is hoping to be back in action by the end of next week after avoiding serious injury to his ankle in a stalls incident at Doncaster on Saturday night.

The reigning all-weather champion jockey was due to ride the Tom Clover-trained Hunni in the 1m2f fillies' handicap but she became upset in the stalls and had to be withdrawn.

The 30-year-old was subsequently taken to hospital where his ankle was found to be bruised and swollen rather than broken.

His agent Neil Allan said on Tuesday: "Luke is resting up at the moment as his foot is bruised and swollen but there are thankfully no breaks. He goes for a check up on Thursday but they've told him to have this week off and it may be the end of next week when he's back."

Morris is keen to return as soon as possible – especially with his main backer Sir Mark Prescott getting into gear for the summer – and Allan revealed the rider is already upset at missing a winner.

He added: "I rang him yesterday to ask him if his foot was hurting him and he said, 'Yes but not as much as missing riding a winner for Simon Crisford and Michael Tabor at Redcar'!"

In Morris's absence, Prescott had Josephine Gordon, Daniel Muscutt and Andrew Elliott riding work on Tuesday.

Prescott joked: "Luke's so tough that it takes three jockeys to replace him!"

Weighing room colleague James Sullivan is also targeting a return to the saddle next week having taken a few days off to recover from a pinched nerve in his lower back.

The problem flared up at Thirsk last Saturday when he received a bump coming out of the stalls, which aggravated an injury sustained in a relatively innocuous fall he suffered at Musselburgh recently.

Sullivan said on Tuesday: "I'm going to Jack Berry House to have acupuncture and get it worked on. I'm going to play it by ear but am thinking I'll be back in a week. I don't want to come back until I'm one hundred per cent."

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