Willie Mullins has been forced to rule Douvan out of a scheduled appearance at Christmas due to a setback.

The supremely-talented but fragile chaser returned from nearly 600 days off the track to win the Clonmel Oil Chase in very impressive fashion last month.

He had appeared to set up a crack at the Paddy Power-sponsored two-mile Grade One at Leopardstown over Christmas, but his name did not appear among the entries last week.

Speaking after watching Min win a second John Durkan Memorial Chase at Punchestown, Mullins confirmed that unfortunately Douvan will be spending Christmas on the sidelines.

“Douvan didn’t come out of his race well, but it’s not the problem he had before. It’s a back-end problem and he must have hit a fence in Clonmel,” said Mullins.

“He’s going to miss Christmas, but hopefully will be back after that.”