Charles Byrnes has suffered a hammer blow with the news Cheltenham Gold Cup hope Weapon's Amnesty is to miss the entire National Hunt season.

Winner of the Grade One three-mile novice hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in 2009, he returned to Prestbury Park to put some highly-touted rivals in their place in the RSA Chase this year.

However, in winning that event the seven-year-old suffered a ligament injury which will see him miss a return to Cheltenham next March.

"We've decided to give him a whole year off, he won't come back into training until July next year," said Byrnes.

"He picked up the injury during race, he ran with it for a couple of furlongs.

"He's far too good to risk but because he's a young horse we're going to give him plenty of time to get over it."