Rory faces Open agony after freak ankle injury
RORY McILROY will know by Sunday if his dream of defending his Open title at St Andrews has been ended by a freak injury. The world No 1 suffered serious ligament damage after turning his ankle while running for a ball playing five-a-side football with friends at home in Northern Ireland. McIlroy will have intensive treatment this week in a bid to be fit. ‘He’s desperate to play next week and doing everything he can in terms of icing it, having treatment and taking anti-inflammatories,’ his manager Sean O’Flaherty told Sportsmail. ‘The word we’re getting from his fitness coach is that this type of injury takes between one week and six weeks to heal, so we’ve just got to keep our fingers crossed when the swelling goes down. We should know one way or the other by the end of the week.’ The timing could not have been worse for McIlroy, who is also due to defend his Bridgestone Invitational and USPGA Championship trophies in the next few weeks. If McIlroy misses out next week, Texan Jordan Spieth, winner of the Masters and the US Open already this year, will have the chance to replace him as world No 1.
NO-ONe expected Rory Mcilroy to replicate the summer of dreams he carved out for himself this time last year but it will be sad indeed if he does not get the chance.
Monday morning blues hardly come much deeper than yesterday’s, when the world No 1 revealed he had suffered a ruptured ankle- ligament injury during a football kickabout with his mates that has left him fighting a desperate battle against time.
First casualty was a scheduled appearance at the scottish Open at Gullane this week.
The Open at st andrews in nine days would surely have been crossed off as well but for the fact he is the defending champion and the event is being staged on his favourite course. it is the first of three titles which the 26-year-old will put on the line over the course of a hectic month — the others are the Bridgestone invitational and the UsPGa Championship. Barring the best possible scenario, it does not look as if he will be fighting fit for any of them.
Mcilroy revealed his devastating news in an instagram post yesterday morning that left the golf world saddened and stunned. Next to a grim photograph of him on crutches and a protective boot on the stricken joint, he wrote: ‘Total rupture of left aTFL (ankle ligament) and associated joint capsule damage in a soccer kickabout with friends on saturday. Continuing to assess extent of injury and treatment plan day by day. Rehab already started — working hard to get back as soon as i can.’
No definitive prognosis can be made until the swelling goes down. Given it is a total rupture, however, it seems all but certain Mcilroy will become the first Open champion unable to defend his trophy since Ben Hogan elected not to cross the atlantic in the summer of 1954.
Mcilroy’s spokesman sean O’Flaherty is clinging to the faint possibility he will still make it.
‘it happened on saturday morning during a five-a- side game with his pals near his home in Holywood,’ he explained to Sportsmail. ‘There was nobody near him and he just went over on his ankle while he was running.
‘Obviously we knew pretty quickly that he would have no chance of playing the scottish. But he’s desperate to play at st andrews and doing everything he can in terms of icing it, having treatment and taking antiinflammatories. i don’t know about these things but the word we’re getting from his fitness coach is that this type of injury can take anything from one week to six weeks to heal, so we’ve got our fingers crossed.
‘We’ll have a good idea by the end of the week whether he can make it but he’s remaining in good spirits and has proved a good healer in the past.’
Mcilroy has had a similar injury — also picked up playing football — that only took a week to heal but that was more a mild sprain than a total rupture.
On Twitter, his close friend sergio Garcia has already written him off for st andrews. ‘so sad to hear about Rory injury on his ankle. We will all miss you at The Open next week my friend,’ he tweeted. scot Richie Ramsay suffered a similar ligament rupture on his ankle and offered a bleak assessment. ‘These things take longer than you think to heal,’ he said.
From Wimbledon, andy Murray sent his best wishes to Mcilroy. speaking after his fourth-round win over ivo Karlovic, the scot said: ‘it’s one of those things maybe he’ll regret playing football with his friends just now. i sometimes play football. i always play with ankle braces and stuff in case, you know, something happens. But, yeah, it’s really, really unfortunate. Hopefully he’s OK.’
adding to the sense of disappointment, of course, is that barely, if ever, have the stars appeared so perfectly aligned, with Mcilroy about to put his two majors up for grabs against the still younger pretender who has already claimed the opening pair of Grand slam events of this year.
Now, assuming Mcilroy misses out next week, 21-year-old Texan Jordan spieth will have the chance to add to the Northern irishman’s angst and replace him at the summit of the sport with a seventh-place finish or higher at the John deere Classic this week and wrapping both hands around the Claret Jug.
Former Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley is sorely disappointed that golf fans will be unlikely to see Mcilroy do battle with spieth.
McGinley said: ‘it was all set up for a lovely head- to- head with Jordan (spieth) and all the other guys, too. it was going to be great for the game of golf but now we’ve been deprived of that. i hope he recovers quickly.’