Paul Nolan still hopes Noble Prince will be able to run at the Punchestown Festival despite finding out his stable star suffered from sacroiliac joint pain at Cheltenham.
Well fancied for the Ryanair Chase having won at the Festival last year, Davy Russell was forced to pull up Noble Prince with half a mile still to run.
Nolan thanked Russell for his actions and believes if he had asked him to complete the race, more damage could have been done.
Sizing Europe suffered from the same ailment when he was pulled up in the Champion Hurdle of 2008 and made a complete recovery.
"We got the horse treated yesterday by Mark Swale (vet) and he had treatment on his sacroiliac joint," said Nolan.
"It's the same thing that happened to Sizing Europe.
"Hopefully it's treated. It's a very treatable injury and we should be back, we're still not ruling out Punchestown.
"He must have twisted his back or hurt it in some way but the vet was very confident that is what it was, but it's treated now so we shall see.
"I'm glad we found something anyway, otherwise we would have been scratching our heads.
"It was good Davy pulled him up when he did rather than going on to what looked an inevitable defeat.
"Whatever he did happened early on."
