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Rory McIlroy can't even run at the moment, let alone prepare for the Masters. David Davies/PA Wire/PA Images
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Rory McIlroy reveals he can't even run at the moment, let alone swing a golf club

It’s not exactly ideal Masters preparation for the former world number one.

RORY MCILROY LOOKED as if he was carrying his good form from the end of 2016 into the new year.

However, while finishing as the South African Open runner-up in January, the Northern Irishman was suffering so badly with what he thought was back pain that he considered pulling out of the tournament.

Tests after the event revealed he actually had a stress fracture in his ribs, an injury that forced him to withdraw from the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and the Dubai Desert Classic at the start of next month.

Now McIlroy has revealed he probably won’t play again until March, a month before the Masters as he’s struggling to even run at the moment.

He told Fox Sports‘ Shane Bacon on his podcast The Clubhouse:

“I’ve been walking. I can’t even run at the minute because if my feet hit the ground hard at all the vibration in my rib cage sort of hurts.

“I’ve been walking quite a bit. I’ve been walking 5-6 miles a day. I putted today for the first time. That’s the first little bit of golf I’ve done since I found out about this injury.

It probably started before Christmas. I hit a lot of balls in the offseason testing equipment, and I’m trying to make a little bit of a swing change as well. My takeaway was getting a little bit behind me at the start of the swing so I was trying to make sure the club stayed in front of me on the way back.

“On one of the drills I was doing, I was reaching a little bit with my left arm and extending. That’s basically what we think has happened. The combination of trying to make that small tweak in my swing and hitting a lot of balls.

“Testing drivers. Testing balls. The muscles basically said, ‘we worked hard, we don’t want to work anymore.’

“That puts stress on the joint. The joint is like: ‘I don’t like this either.’

“There’s a lot of stress and a just little bit of a fracture.”

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