• Menu
  • Menu

Rory McIlroy Injured in Soccer Kickabout, Doubtful for 2015 Open Championship

THE RESULTS OF A "SOCCER" - HIS WORDS - KICKABOUT WITH PALS
THE RESULTS OF A “SOCCER” – HIS WORDS – KICKABOUT WITH PALS

World Number 1 golfer Rory McIlroy was given only a 10% chance of defending his Open Championship title at St. Andrews next week when he suffered a “total rupture of his left ATFL” on Saturday. He posted a photo of himself on crutches and in a cast on various social media sites Monday afternoon GMT.

“Total rupture of left ATFL 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,” McIlroy wrote.

The injury puts the breaks on a crucial locking of horns with America’s Jordan Spieth, winner of the year’s first two majors – what a duel that could have been at the Home of Golf, with a Grand Slam on the line. Worse still, while McIlroy’s team still holds out a gossamer thread of his starting at the Open, most people familiar with ligament injuries say McIlroy will miss anywhere from 4-6 weeks to the rest of the season.

While reports are scattered, sources state McIlroy was hurt in a little 5-on-5 kickabout. Whether that involved full on running and contact or was just trotting about like a glorified hacky-sack circle is anybody’s guess. If it’s the latter, it’s understandable, a guy has to live life like a normal person. The former, however, is likely verboten in his endorsement contracts, which frequently forbid dangerous activities. The practice became custom in baseball contracts after Red Sox star Jim Lonborg hurt himself skiing one off-season.

[Editor’s Note: AWITP and GNN will be updating this report will details on the contract implications as they become available. What sometimes happens though, is that athlete has enough clout to keep some of those clauses out during negotiations, but that’s usually only at the ultra-superstar level, where they have ALL the bargaining power – to their own detriment sometimes….]

“If Rory tore a ligament, he ain’t coming back this golf season,” opined one Gloomy Gus of a writer, who asked for anonymity. “An injury like that is 4-6 weeks minimum, which means he’ll miss the PGA Championship too. I think they just put out the word about a 10% chance of him playing to keep network TV appeased.”

True: broadcasters are terrified they’ll lose casual eyeballs, and there are plenty now that we have a legitimate Triple Crown threat and – dare we hope? – Grand Slam possibility. Upon hearing of McIlroy’s injury, odds on Spieth shrank to a paltry 5-1 to win the Open. Also, people are wondering out loud how Team McIlroy was able to keep a lid on the injury between its occurrence on Saturday and the Monday social media revelations.

This is the worst news possible for golf – only now just wrapping its head around Tiger Woods dominance being completely over. They finally had a successor – the heir apparent – and now this happens. Balloon, meet pin.

Still, the Triple Crown race will keep the eyeballs that would otherwise have been lost. Spieth seems unlikely to spit the bit by playing poorly, but Open Championship weather sometimes has other ideas, and if a King Lear-like storm rolls through a la 2002 at Muirfield, and Jordan misses the cut, the big draws are suddenly gone, and the worls would once again turn its lonely eyes too…

…drum roll please…

…Phil Mickelson!