DANNY WILLETT

DANNY WILLETT has revealed the “painkiller chomping” nightmare that wrecked his game.

The Sheffield star admits it was “depressing” to spend the last couple of years in chronic pain – even simple tasks like picking up his kids or bending over were agony.

The downturn came after Willett became only the second Englishman to win the Masters, in 2016.

The 30-year-old found his body was unable to cope with a punishing playing schedule and bad swing habits.

Now he’s battling back to form ahead of The Open at Carnoustie this week – rebuilding his swing with coach Sean Foley.

Willett plunged from the a top-10 world ranking to 400th, in a miserable run which this year included 10 missed cuts out of 12 events. But he’s hit some form in recent weeks. Willett said: “It is nice to wake up and not be chomping pain-killers and to be able to do the simple things I want to do. “Everything kind of spirals. “I was in a lot of pain. Bending over, picking the kids up – that kind of stuff. My back was hurting.

“I tore my shoulder. You tear your shoulder and your swing is dodgy.

“I have messed up my knee a little bit and then your neck goes. It just rolls on. It is not the primary injury necessarily, it is the secondary stuff that people don’t realise.

“Walking is a massive thing. We walk 10 to 12 miles a day.

“If you are injured in an area and walking cagily, you get a secondary problem through other areas and they are the ones that are annoying.

“You don’t realise at first that they are the ones that are killers.”

Willett was sixth at the Irish Open last weekend, and eighth at the Italian Open in June.

He added: “I got low. People wanted me to play all over, different places. I was Masters champion, people wanted me to play here and there, and I probably played a bit too much.

“The body wasn’t ready for it. It had a