Rory McIlroy remains “pretty confident” that he will be fully fit for the remainder of the season, specifically for the Horizon Irish Open in early September, as well as the run-up to the Ryder Cup, despite back spasms denting hopes of a fourth FedEx Cup title.
The World No.2’s chances of winning the Tour Championship disappeared on Saturday when he carded a one-over 71 to fall well off the pace at East Lake, as Viktor Hovland's hot form continued.
McIlroy admitted he had been struggling with a sore back which has spasmed at East Lake, but the 34-year-old is adamant he isn't jeopardising his future fitness by continuing to play ahead of a busy stretch of tournaments including the Irish Open, BMW PGA Championship and Ryder Cup.
Speaking to Sky Sports after his third round, the Scottish Open champion explained: “I certainly feel better today than I felt the rest of the week. Still a little limited in what I can do. I have to hit the driver pretty low out there, but I felt like I retained my posture a little bit better, which was great."
He went on to add: “My score didn’t reflect it, but yeah, feeling better, which is a good sign. Get through tomorrow (Sunday) and hopefully finish off the tournament and the PGA Tour season with a good score 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 100% ready to go for the 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. I'm obviously not going to rush it but hopefully by the end of next week, the weekend going into the Irish Open, I'll be back to feeling 100%.”
