Lens hood partially blocking 430EX focus assist beam

Just noticed this the other day, my 17-55mm lens hood is huge and it partially blocks the red patterned focus assist beam of my 430EX flash. i haven't noticed any difference in test pictures with the hood on and off. but i am wondering if this will be a problem in real world application? i'm sure other people have come across this problem (if it's even a problem) with lenses like 24-70, 70-200 etc. Just wondering if i should be concerned or not. thanks!

If it does become a problem, a bracket is one solution.

Or put the hood on after the flash gets it reading...but what a pain.
I echo jfrancho's suggestion...something like a stroboframe pro-T will serve you well; downside is additional setup time and accessories.

Even my little Stroboframe VH2000 fixes this problem.

thanks for the suggestions. i am looking into getting a flash bracket now.

This might be a dumb question, but if the light level is low enough to need the focus assist, why have the hood on?

^^Good question.. but some people (myself included) prefer having the lens hood on to protect the front element

Overall low light levels on your subject doesn't necessarily mean that there aren't bright lights off to one side that can wash out the colours in the shot or produce awful glare effects... lens hoods are always useful imho, any extra light coming in from outside of the frame is mostly going to have a negative effect.

And yeah, then there is the protection from fingers/toes/teeth and whatnot...