McIlroy “pretty confident” he’ll be 100pc fit for Irish Open

Rory McIlroy

Rory McIlroy is “pretty confident” that the back spasms that scuppered his hopes of a fourth FedExCup title won’t be a problem for the Horizon Irish Open and the run-up to the Ryder Cup.

The world number two’s chances of winning the Tour Championship evaporated when he carded a one-over 71 to fall 11 strokes behind Viktor Hovland at East Lake.

But he vowed not to “rush it” and try to do too much too soon in terms of his back as he prepares to round off the PGA Tour season in Sunday.

“I'm okay,” said McIlroy, who is tied for eighth in nine-under. “I certainly feel better today than I felt the rest of the week.

“Still a little limited in what can do. I have to hit the driver pretty low out there, but I felt like I retained my posture a little bit better today, which was great. 

“My score didn’t reflect it, but yeah, feeling better, which is a good sign.”

Tied for the lead with Collin Morikawa overnight, Hovland shot a n impressive 66 to lead by six strokes from Xander Schauffele (68) on 20-under-par and by seven shots from Keegan Bradley (70) and Morikawa, who shot a disappointing 73.

McIlroy knows he can’t win the FedExCup for the fourth time since 2016. But he sounded confident that a week of rehab and gym work will allow him to tee it up at The K Club and the BMW PGA at Wentworth before heading to Rome.

“Yeah, still quite a lot of golf to play, so you know, get through tomorrow and hopefully finish off the tournament and the PGA Tour season with a good score,” he told Sky Sports. 

“And then I guess next week, we'll just be focused on getting myself right, some treatment, probably a little bit of time in the gym, doing some sort of rehab exercises, and just making sure that I'm 10pc ready to go for Irish Open, then Wentworth and then obviously, we've got another week and then the Ryder Cup.

“So not too concerned that it's going give me any bother for the next few weeks. 

“I'm glad that it started to settle down. It’s a shame that it happened this week and I haven't really been able to get the best out of myself, but I'm pretty confident that I'm going to be in a good spot for the next few weeks.”

He admitted it was frustrating not to be able to hit the shots he wanted or to prepare properly for his title defence.

“I felt a little bit behind the eight ball the entire week,” he said. “So yeah, look, I can console myself that I've done pretty well around here in the past, and you know, I'm sure I'll have plenty more chances in the future as well. “

Looking forward to getting back to full fitness, he added: “It'll feel great and I'm obviously not going to rush it. Even today, there were a couple of points where I felt like just teeing the driver up a little higher and trying to launch a couple, but I'm just taking it easy. 

“Hopefully by the end of next week, the weekend going into the Irish Open, I'll be back to feeling 100pc.”