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Juglall out of action for two to four weeks

Injured jockey Nooresh Juglall will know today whether he faces two or four weeks on the sidelines.

Riding winners almost every week since the start of the new season, Juglall saw the flying momentum cut short by a heavy fall from Rusty Brown halfway through the Class 4 race over 1,200m on Sunday.

The Mauritian jockey, who was in his first meeting back after a short trip to his hometown to visit his mother who just had an operation, was sent to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, where he was diagnosed with a fractured nose bridge and cheekbone, as well as a gashed tongue.

Brain scans came back clean and no other injury was detected. After his nose and tongue were given a few stitches, he was allowed to go home on Sunday night itself, along with a two-week medical certificate.

But he was told that he would have to see ear, nose and throat specialist today to make sure no further infection was caused by the nose injury.

Juglall, who led the ladder going into Sunday's meeting before dropping to second place after Vlad Duric rode a double (Siam Gemstone and Rosegold) to skip ahead one win clear, was anxious to be back in the saddle as soon as possible, but knew his health comes first.

"I can't really remember what happened until I saw the video. I do remember my horse clipping heels and then I blacked out before I woke up in an ambulance," said Juglall.

"I'm still very sore, and my face is all swollen, but I guess I was pretty lucky as it could have been a lot worse. I'm also relieved my back is fine."

A year ago, Juglall was, by coincidence, also topping the premiership when he suffered a back injury in a barrier trial fall on Jan 12. He was out of action for more than two months.

"I'm hoping to hear good news from the ENT doctor on Friday," he said.

"If I'm clear, then I will miss only two weeks, but the worst-case scenario would be there are some problems to the nose and then it could be four weeks."