Ruby Walsh breaks leg in fall from Let's Dance at Punchestown

Walsh has been the leading jockey at the Cheltenham Festival on 11 occasions

Jockey Ruby Walsh broke a leg in a fall from Let's Dance at Punchestown.

The Irishman, riding the 4-9 favourite, fell four from the finish of the Frontline Security Grabel Mares Hurdle.

Walsh, 38, was treated on the track before being taken to hospital in Naas for X-rays. He later told Racing UK he fractured his right tibia.

Turf Club chief medical officer Adrian McGoldrick said Walsh also received a kick to the head and would have a CT scan "as a matter of routine".

"He got a nasty kick off his own horse when he was trying to get up," McGoldrick said. "He's fully alert, though."

Walsh, for whom this was a third fall of the card, won the 2015 Champion Hurdle with Faugheen and was set to partner the horse in Sunday's Morgiana Hurdle at Punchestown.

Faugheen has not run since winning the Irish Champion Hurdle in January 2016.

Paul Townend is expected replace Walsh as the nine-year-old bay gelding's jockey on Sunday.

Analysis

BBC racing correspondent Cornelius Lysaght

With all of his success, Walsh is one of the most followed jump jockeys ever, particularly at the major festivals, riding principally for trainer Willie Mullins, and previously Paul Nicholls.

It's impossible to say for just how long he'll be out, but three or four months is probably a reasonable guess for a 38-year-old.

So there is a chance his being fit in March to ride at the showpiece Cheltenham Festival - where he has been top jockey for each of the last five years - could be problematic.