The injury is frustrating timing for Ryan Fox. Photo / Getty
The injury is frustrating timing for Ryan Fox. Photo / Getty
He wasn't struck by a golf ball and he didn't slip down the stairs.
Ryan Fox describes the knee injury that has sidelined him from two of the biggest tournaments on the DP World Tour calendar as the "most boring story you can imagine".
The 35-year-old was at his homenear Wentworth on Friday night, the day the BMW PGA Championship was postponed because of the Queen's death.
"I was walking around the kitchen table on the way out to the barbecue and twisted slightly on my right knee and something grabbed on me and basically couldn't walk the rest of the night," Fox told the Herald.
"It didn't get much better on Saturday and I couldn't walk across the range, let alone walk 18 holes, so had to withdraw unfortunately. I have withdrawn [from the Italian Open] on doctor's orders after an MRI showed that I had partially torn the meniscus in my right knee."
It's frustrating for Fox, not the least because his parents had travelled to the UK to watch him in four of the biggest tournaments on the calendar, but also because the Italian Open in Rome starting Thursday night is played at the same course where the Ryder Cup is being held next year.
"We've got Rory McIlroy playing, I think Fitz [US Open winner Matt Fitzpatrick] is playing. So I think a few guys are scouting it out before next year, and I certainly would have liked to go down there. But it's also a pretty brutal walk and I wasn't sure if I could even walk the golf course.
"So it was better to take another week off and figure out a plan going forward."
Ryan Fox will miss the Italian Open due to a knee injury. Photo / Getty
Fox saw a specialist today and says all things are pointing towards no surgery and he should be set for a return next week.
"I can walk around the house without too much pain, which is good. And hopefully later in the week can sort of test it out with some golf swings and walking around the golf course."
Fox is now targeting a return at next week's French Open at Le Golf National in Paris, which held the Ryder Cup in 2018 and is a course where he has played well at in the past.
"I had a sixth there in the French Open a few years ago. It's probably the hardest golf course we play all year – there's plenty of water, plenty of trouble. So it's going to be interesting going in there a little cold after I was supposed to play two weeks of golf in the lead-up to it."
Fox played a lot of golf through to the 150th Open Championship in mid-July, which included three majors, but has since only played seven rounds of competitive golf.
"I haven't played a lot of golf and I was looking at a really busy end to the year playing four weeks in a row, a week off and another couple in a row, a week off and then four in a row to finish the year.
"But this has changed the plans a little bit. And it's kind of ironic, I play all this golf with no issue whatsoever and injure myself walking around the house."
All going well with his recovery, Fox plans on playing next week's French Open and then the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland (September 29-October 2) before taking a week off and playing the Andalucía Masters at Valderrama in Spain (October 13-16).
Despite his lack of recent tournament play, Fox is still seventh in the DP World Tour standings and 47th in the world rankings.
"Thankfully it hasn't hurt me too much on the order of merit or anything missing out on the weekend at Wentworth and this week in Rome, and I can still sort of challenge for that DP World title at the end of the year."
Fox hopes to keep his ranking inside the world's top 50, which would secure a first start at the Masters next year, the one major he is yet to play.
"There's still enough golf to do that and I still have some big events coming up and plenty of world ranking points to play for. I am in a position where there's no point playing if I'm not fit.
"Hopefully I can I can do a little bit of work at the end of this weekend and early next week and really start finding some form again, and make a big push and stay in that top 50 for the end of the year."
