Jockey Andrea Atzeni will miss the Sha Tin meeting on Sunday and has also applied to withdraw from his club jockey contract.

On Monday, Atzeni informed Jockey Club licensing secretary Steve Railton he was urgently required to return to Britain for personal reasons.

The announcement also noted the licensing committee would consider an application from Atzeni to relinquish his club jockey licence, which had been scheduled to see the Italian riding here until February 28.

What appears to be Atzeni's imminent departure from the riding roster comes quickly on the heels of Australian Christian Reith ending his contract five weeks before its scheduled completion, leaving numbers in the jockeys' room down.

In addition, Mirco Demuro is now suspended until January 11 and champion jockey Zac Purton also has a significant period of suspension to serve after this Sunday that will keep him out of action until January 19. But Railton said the club may not rush to bring replacements for the riders who have departed early.

"Naturally, the licensing committee will look at the overall picture and all options, including whether any additional jockeys might be required," Railton said.

"However, we have to remember we do have Maxime Guyon due to join the roster on January 1 and we also have Howard Cheng [Yue-tin] returning from his long suspension on January 5, so that will bolster the available numbers."