LEADING jumps jockey Adrian Maguire has been given the all-clear to make his long-awaited comeback. The luckless Irishman saw his specialist, Michael Foy at the Ridgeway Hospital in Swindon yesterday and X-rays showed his broken arm had healed completely.

Maguire will ride out for his boss David Nicholson today and hopes to be ready to be back raceriding in a week to 10 days. The rider suffered his latest set-back in a novice chase at Leicester at the end of February, ruling him out of Cheltenham for the third successive year.

"I'm delighted and I'm itching to get back," said Maguire. "I had hoped to get the nod a month ago, so I'd be ready for the beginning of the new jumps season, but it was only 75 per cent healed.

"Now everything is fine and I'm feeling fit and well and raring to go. I've just come back from 10 days in Spain, and I've been doing plenty of swimming and weight-training with the arm.

"I reckon I'll need a week to 10 days riding out before I'm ready to come back and I'll start off with two lots for Mr Nicholson tomorrow."

Meanwhile, flat jockey Declan O'Shea faces over six weeks on the sidelines after discovering yesterday he broke his wrist in a fail at Yarmouth last week. O'Shea was on board the Mark Chapman-trained Love Over Gold when the three-year-old fell with over a furlong to go in the Weatherbys, Eclipse Pedigrees Fillies' Maiden.

At the time O'Shea, attached to the Angmering stables of Lady Herries, was stood down with slight concussion and that was thought to be the extent of his injuries. However, X-rays carried out later revealed he had broken his wrist.

Royal Ascot will get underway today with the track in "first-class" condition, clerk of the course Nick Cheyne reported yesterday. "The going for tomorrow will be good to firm, good in places," said Cheyne. "It has been dry today but having said that we are now just getting a few spots of rain. The course is in first-class shape."

Eveningperformance misses Friday's King's Stand Stakes because "she is not working as well as I would like", her trainer Henry Candy said yesterday.