Padraig Harrington has explained why he dropped Rory McIlroy for Saturday's foursomes at the Ryder Cup.
Europe went into the second day at Whistling Straits trailing the USA 6-2.
McIlroy struggled on Friday, losing both his foursomes and fourball games as Harrington's team struggled to build any momentum.
Saturday morning's omission is the first time McIlroy has been left out of a Ryder Cup session in his career.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Team Europe captain Harrington said: “Rory, we need him for the singles.
“Pushing him out this morning, making him play five times, would be an awful lot. Clearly, you’re going to see him this afternoon.
"Risking getting him back on the golf course, tiring him out...
"If we are going to win tomorrow we are going to need a big singles day. We got to keep that in mind."
Heading into Saturday's play, Harrington said he remained optimistic Europe could claw their way back into the competition.
"There's twenty points left, we're four points down. They don't need to win it all in one session," he said.
"They just need to eat back into that lead, it would be nice if we could go win this session, follow it up winning the next session.
"Even if it it's half a point or a point... well it can't be half a point. But even it's a point sort of game, you know that's all we need.
"We need to be there or thereabouts tomorrow and as I said a lot of points to play for."
