Superman is back in the saddle -- with a capital 'S' for spleen removed from his body.

When Rugby Walsh was hooved in the stomach by Pride of Dulcote in the Cleanevent Handicap Hurdle at Cheltenham on Saturday, November 15, he was quickly taken to Cheltenham General Hospital where his ruptured spleen was removed.

Initially, it was estimated that the Champion Jockey would himself be removed from his profession for at least six weeks.

But he confounded medical opinion by riding out for the first time eight days ago, convincing the English Turf Club's Chief Medical Officer, Dr Adrian McGoldrick, of his fitness to ride last Wednesday and vaulting back into the saddle on Mahonia, back at Cheltenham last Friday, a remarkable 27 days on from the injury.

Dr McGoldrick allayed fears that Walsh had tried to ride before he could run: "I saw Ruby nine days after his operation and you would have thought that the operation had taken place a month previously.

"He has healed much more quickly than an ordinary person would have from similar surgery.

"While, I was surprised at the rate of his recovery, it is all down to his fitness levels and diet. His recovery shows that he is an elite athlete," reflected McGoldrick.

In this regard, NFL quarterback Chris Simms, 2008 Olympic champion cyclist Geraint Thomas, NHL ice hockey legend Peter Forsberg and our own Paul Carberry are examples of hard men who underwent the same operation with far less impressive rehabilitation results.

"A splenectomy involves a major incision, and the recovery time is at least six weeks," according to Dr Michael Kaplan, a revered American sports injuries expert.

"It's not unusual for somebody to rupture the organ in a game or in a car accident and continue his normal activity until the pain is too much to bear. People with ruptured spleens will bleed into their bellies and either feel pain or may pass out as a result of blood loss.

"The spleen is an organ in the upper left side of the abdomen that filters the blood by removing old or damaged blood cells and platelets and helps the immune system by destroying bacteria and other foreign substances. It also holds extra blood that can be released into the circulatory system if needed.

"The spleen is a useful but non-essential organ. The lack of a spleen puts a person at some higher risk for infection. It is sometimes removed in people who have blood disorders, such as thalassemia or hemolytic anemia.

"If the spleen is removed, a person must get certain immunisations to help prevent infections that the spleen normally fights," revealed Kaplan.

In other words, Walsh will have to be careful about what he puts into his body and what he puts his body through in the years ahead.

But that comes as second nature for a man who spends his working life weighing the effect of each calorie which enters his system.

Walsh showed no ill-effects from his injury in steering the odds-on Mahonia into second place in the EBF/Boylesports.com Novice Hurdle last Friday.

It was a booster for his main English trainer, Paul Nicholls, who had been reeling from the furore caused by the unlucky run of form of his back-up jockey Sam Thomas.

The fact is Walsh has executed a rate of recovery from his splenectomy that is far faster than other world-class athletes from a variety of sports. It is a reflection of his determination to return to race riding, a passion surely passed down from his father Ted, the 10-time Irish Amateur Champion Jockey.

He showed his well-being on Sunday when getting that all-important first winner back on the Willie Mullins-trained Scotsirish in the featured Grade-2 Hilly Way Chase at Cork.

This Superman has not met his kryptonite yet.

SPLEEN THERE, DONE THAT... FOUR OTHERS WHO HAVE SUFFERED

1Geraint Thomas -- Great Britain 2008 Olympic gold medal-winning cyclist

In February 2005, Thomas was leisurely riding back to his hotel in Australia when his front wheel got tangled up in a piece of metal from a team-mate's bike. He crashed to the road with the metal going into his body.

It was a moment he will never forget: "The forks snapped, the wheel was mangled and whilst I was lying there, I thought I was only winded. It didn't feel as bad as it turned out to be," he recalled.

"I was in intensive care. The pain was quite constant and, although my spleen stopped bleeding for a while, it started again in the middle of the night and they had to operate straight away. It was better to have got it out as I was able to get back on the bike quicker. I seem to recover really quickly".

The 2004 world junior track champion and subsequent double world senior champion and 2008 Beijing Olympic gold medalist is as perfect a physical specimen as there is in world sport.

He did not climb back onto his bike for six weeks. But, he had to wait four months to be medically passed for competition. It was seen as a careful, considerate rehabilitation period.

2Chris Simms -- National Football League Tennessee Titan quarterback

In September 2006, the Buccaneers quarterback, son of the New York Giants' Super Bowl-winning quarter-back Phil, took several hard hits to his upper body, temporarily leaving the field of play twice.

Simms dropped to his right knee in the third quarter, walking to the locker room under his own power, before returning to see out the final quarter. He was admitted to a private hospital in Florida where he had a blood transfusion as part of having his spleen removed overnight.

He was ruled out for the rest of the season -- four months -- and never played for the Buccaneers again, saying, "the relationship between me and coach (Jon) Gruden is broken and I don't see anyway it's going to get better".

Simms was known to be disgruntled at the lack of support and sensitivity shown to him by Gruden during his rehabilitation process.

On August 30, this year, the Buccaneers released Simms. He was signed as a back-up to Kerry Collins by the Tennessee Titans.

The 2002 third-round draft pick out of the University of Texas, in Austin, has been hurt by the general impression floating around the game that his throwing motion has been hindered, long-term, by his splenectomy.

3 Peter Forsberg -- Swedish ice hockey player.

In 2001, the Swedish skater, arguably the world's greatest player at the time, had to have his spleen taken out after he complained of a stomach ailment and coughed up blood following a game-seven play-off win over the Los Angeles Kings.

In an overnight scare, he was rushed to surgery at Rose Medical Centre, in Denver, for a two-hour emergency operation complicated by internal bleeding. He was lucky to survive at the time.

It was seen as the end of the Colorado Avalanche's Stanley Cup ambitions for the season. However, they were able to win the championship, in Forsberg's honour, for the second time during his playing days there.

The injury forced Forsberg to miss the entire regular season of 2002 before he made an astonishing play-off contribution to lead the NHL post-season scorers.

He has since been struck down by a variety of injuries with some possibly related to his vulnerability to infection from the removal of his spleen.

4Paul Carberry -- National Hunt jockey.

In April 1999, with the season winding down, the Ratoath rider slumped to the ground with a four-day-old pain in his stomach from what he thought was a misdemeanour fall while riding work for his main backer, Noel Meade, at Castletown Stables.

Stories are legion about the scant disregard Carberry shows for his own body. His daredevil attitude to life has often seen him land in hot water with the authorities. This was another matter entirely.

In this instance, he carried on regardless of the danger to his own health, believing time would heal all wounds -- until the severe pain of his internal problems brought him to his knees.

Later that summer, he told the Racing Post: "I'm feeling good and getting there gradually. But the medical advice is for me not to risk having a fall on fast ground until everything is 100pc."

The time delay in dealing with a serious problem may have played a part in Carberry's five-month recuperative period.

The hard ground that is part and parcel of summer racing was deemed too serious a risk to take from another fall.

- Des Berry