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, Sir Henry Cecil's superstar was due to make his seasonal reappearance in the Lockinge at Newbury on May 19.

However, he sustained an injury when working in Newmarket on Wednesday morning and is due for a scan next week.

Rumours sparked by TV reports at Aintree spread that he had indeed been retired on Saturday, but that is not the case.

Grimthorpe, racing manager to owner Khalid Abdullah, told Racing UK:

"He certainly hasn't been retired. I spoke to Henry two or three hours ago, I spoke to him this morning and I spoke to him last night.

"No decision at all will be taken until after he has had this definitive scan which is due to take place next week.

"No decision has been made regarding anything to do with his future at the moment. He certainly hasn't been retired at this stage and it's incorrect to think that.

"We are hopeful and quite positive that he will be OK, but at the moment, we really don't know and it's too early to say."