Hurricane Fly has been declared a non-runner for this afternoon's Deloitte Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown.

The Willie Mullins-trained five-year-old, favourite for the Supreme Novices' Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, was found to have been lame on Saturday evening.

"It appears to be a foot problem and he is not any better this morning," said Mullins.

"Hopefully my blacksmith will be able to deal with it."

Mullins is confident his exciting novice, already a two-time Grade One scorer, will recover from the setback in time for the Cheltenham Festival.

"Hopefully he will be OK in his preparations for Cheltenham," added the County Carlow handler.

"When a horse is acutely lame like that, it normally takes three to four days (to recover).

"We will have him checked out later today and then see where we stand."

Hurricane Fly's defection has reduced the Deloitte field to just four runners, with his stablemate Cousin Vinny and the Noel Meade-trained Pandorama still in contention.