Paul McGinley is facing up to two months out of the game after undergoing yet another operation on his left knee.

The 42-year old Dubliner had surgery to clean out damaged cartilage in his troublesome left knee - the sixth operation he has undergone on the same knee since he broke his knee cap playing gaelic football when he was 19.

"I don't know what the situation is in the long term but my knee is disintegrating at a rate," said McGinley, who finished 104th in the Race to Dubai for his worst ranking in 18 years on tour. 

"For the next three or four years it is not going to be too much of a problem but after that who knows. Then again, I have not got any news today that I have never heard before."

Speaking from his hospital bed, where he was watching the Champions League on TV, he added: "Since I broke my kneecap when I was 19, fragments break off and tear the cartilage. The twisting and turning of playing golf hasn't been good for it. 

"I have been in a bit of pain this year when I have had to put weight on my left side playing bunker shots or off sidehill lies.

"The most disappointing thing is that I planned to do a lot of work with Bob Torrance over the winter and then get stuck into next season. But I am going to be on crutches for the next three weeks and I'm not going to able to hit balls until January."

The Dubliner's season ended when he missed the cut in the Barclays Singapore Open more than three weeks ago.

Writing on his blog, McGinley described 2009 as a "frustrating and surprisingly bad year" but insisted that he is far from finished and revealed that he is planning another foray into golf course design in Bulgaria.

I finished 104th on the money list, my first time ever outside the top 100 and I am still trying to figure out why I had such a poor year results wise as I don’t feel my golf was of a very poor standard.  However,  the success or not of the year is very dependant on our big finishes of which I didn’t have any, in general as pro golfers on tour 90% of our prize money/world ranking position comes from 10% of our tournaments.  My biggest cheque this year was around €30,000 and it is very difficult to climb the Order of Merit without big cheques and big finishes. 

My golf career is still of utmost importance to me and although a lot of people may conclude that my best days are behind me I certainly don’t feel so and still have a huge appetite to play, practice and travel.  What is most disappointing about my injury is the fact I will not be getting to spend as much time with Bob Torrance over the winter period as I had intended, as I feel part of the reason for my poor form this year was not spending enough time with Bob.  I will also be working hard physically on my recovery form my knee operation and will be also doing as much as possible to keep my strength work up over the winter period.

I don’t intend to sit around over the next month and I have been very fortunate in so far as I have been given the opportunity to re-design St Sofia Golf Club in Bulgaria.  I have already made a visit to the course and have built the team around me to carry out the works.  Golf design in a huge passion of mine and one that I have very strong views and opinions on.  My views are very classical and traditional, Harry Colt being my favourite designer who designed Sunningdale, Royal Portrush, Co Sligo, 3 of my most favourite course I have had the pleasure of playing in the world. A lot of his ideas will be incorporated in my re-design at St Sofia along with my strong views on golf shots being visual, fair and risk rewarding.