The top ranked PGA golfer admitted to the injury on Monday through his Instagram account.
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The world No1 will not defend his title after rupturing ligaments in his left ankle.
It comes as a blow for golf fans, Rory’s sponsors and organisers at St Andrews who will miss out on the main attraction but for the player himself, he will be counting the costs of the unfortunate injury.
McIlroy won the Open Championship by two strokes and lifted the Claret Jug past year at Royal Liverpool after taking a six-shot lead into the final round. “Everybody does”, Spieth said Tuesday at the John Deere Classic.
All the talk at the Scottish Open is about a player who isn’t even here this week. It was looking a really exciting Open for all involved. “Hopefully he’ll heal soon and be back at it. If he can’t play next week, certainly by the PGA I would hope [where McIlroy is also defending champion]”.
Citing research conducted at the Penn State Medical Center on the lingering symptoms of ATFL ligament injury – tendinitis, stiffness, swelling and pain to the area of injury – Golf Digest has raised some questions about how McIlroy’s game could be impacted.
McIlroy finished fourth at the Masters in April, and joint ninth at last month’s US Open.
“We want him back. Everybody needs to have a life, too”, Spieth said. “It’s unlucky, it’s unfortunate, and I’m sure he’s taking it harder on himself than anybody else”.
McIlroy’s Ryder Cup teammate Graeme McDowell said the Holywood man will be “gutted” to be missing out on the title defence. I didn’t feel like anything he (McIlroy) was doing was unnecessary risk.
“I was down on the 12th hole and had a big smile on my face when I got the text and bizarrely it was close to where I got a hole-in-one some years back”.
McIlroy cited the desire to continue rehab in order to be totally healthy as the reason he will skip the Open next weekend in St. Andrews.
McIlroy is the defending British Open champion and a five-time major victor.
FILE – In this Sunday, July 20, 2014 file photo, Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland holds up the Clare …
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Russell Knox, the Scot who was first reserve, will take his place and make his Open debut in the process.
