Richard Dunwoody has been forced to delay his comeback once again. The former champion jump jockey has shelved plans to resume riding today and now hopes to return on Friday, exactly three weeks after he was last in action.

"We are looking at next Friday," his agent Robert Parsons confirmed. "He just has a niggly problem with his neck. He has had a scan and consultations with specialists and Dr Turner and it is nothing serious.

"It just won't go away and if it is not right you are just adding insult to injury by riding. But hopefully he will be back on Friday and we will take it from there."

Dunwoody has been sidelined since he gave up two winning rides at Stratford on May 8th. The 1997/8 National Hunt season ends next Saturday and the Irishman plans to take "bits and pieces" of rides during the summer jumps campaign which starts two days later.