Johnson is ready to call time on his star stayer Inglis

Entries for the Ladbrokes World Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival close this week but the list is set to be drawn up without Howard Johnson's triple winner Inglis Drever.

The trainer is expected to announce the 10-year-old's retirement today after examining scans on a hock injury suffered in November.

The 2005, 2007 and 2008 World Hurdle winner was pulled up in the Long Distance Hurdle at Newbury in November and while Johnson doesn't want Inglis Drever to go out of the game with a whimper, he would find it hard to suffer his champion being heckled at his favourite racecourse.

Johnson said: "I think we'll maybe pull stumps. I don't want him being pulled up at Cheltenham and getting booed off the racecourse."

Meanwhile, the pair at the top of the pecking order to take over the staying hurdle mantle from Inglis Drever are set to clash in the Cleeve Hurdle on Festival Trials Day at Cheltenham a week on Saturday.

Punchestowns and Kasbah Bliss head the betting for the World Hurdle but a mouthwatering rehearsal is set to be played out almost seven weeks before the main event.