Winner of all nine of his starts to date, including the 2000 Guineas, St James's Palace Stakes and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes last year, he was due to make his seasonal reappearance at Newbury on May 19.

However, Sir Henry Cecil's colt looks set to miss Newbury and any future plan hinges on a second scan on his injured off-fore, which will not take place until next week.

Grimthorpe, racing manager to owner Khalid Abdullah, told At The Races: "He suffered this injury on Wednesday morning working on Racecourse Side and he was found to be a bit sore and there was some filling in his leg.

"Henry thought originally that he might have struck into himself on the gallop. He's a very exuberant and extravagant worker.

"The initial scan, which is done on portable scan, showed no damage and no hole, which is positive, which led us to believe and hope it was superficial or just a minor injury.

"But obviously, with a horse of this nature, or any horse actually, we have to be incredibly careful, especially with injuries of this type in this area.

"He's getting the best care he can get at the moment and he'll go into the Equine Hospital in Newmarket and have a scan on a big machine which will tell us definitely if there is any damage.

Unknown

"There is no point in doing it earlier as there is still some haemorrhaging, which has caused the filling in the leg and that needs to dissipate.

"That will probably take about a week to clear and after the scan will give us good pictures and tell us if there is any damage at all.

"Our initial reaction was that it was superficial and at the moment, we are still in the unknown.

"We are all very hopeful for a positive outcome and we'll have to see how that pans out.

"There will be nothing definitive until the end of the (next) week. I think it would be too early to rule him out of Royal Ascot. I would say Newbury would be very unlikely whatever.

"The horse will tell us, but he's going to miss a week and if he was right and recovered, I don't think Henry would want to rush him into Newbury, or even Royal Ascot if needs be.

"If he were right and we were happy with him, he would get into his normal programme and we would run him when the best time came."

Mantra

Grimthorpe insists Abdullah will make the right decision for the horse when the full extent of his injury is discovered.

"Prince Khalid has been a racehorse owner for 40 years now, so he has experienced all the very highs and all the very lows," Grimthorpe continued.

"His mantra has always been that he wants to do the best for his horses.

"They are home-breds, Frankel is a third generation home-bred - it's like your own grandchildren really.

"It has never been a case of what is the cleverest thing to do or what is the most commercial thing to do, it has always been what is the best thing to do.

"The second scan will probably take place on Friday I would think.

"I haven't fully discussed it with the vets or Henry yet, but it will probably be Friday just to give the horse the best opportunity of it all dying down a bit and most importantly to get a clear picture."