Thursday 13 August 2015 10:21, UK
Rory McIlroy is "100% ready" to defend his PGA Championship title - and has attempted to put his ankle injury into context.
Four-time major champion McIlroy will be playing in his first tournament since rupturing his ankle ligaments six weeks ago playing football with friends.
However, the Northern Irishman insists he is ready to contend at Whistling Straits and says he won't be giving up football in the future.
"Anytime that I go back home, one of the things that I regularly do with my friends is that I play football," he said.
"That was like the fourth or fifth time in a 10-day period that I did play. I enjoy it, we all enjoy it, it's unfortunate that it happened.
"It can happen walking off a tee box, or on the street falling off a curb, it can happen doing anything. Unfortunately my foot just got stuck in the turf and I was out for a few weeks. It could have been a lot worse, it could have required surgery. I've done a lot of rehab and a lot of hard work to get back as quickly as I could.
"I wasn't trying to focus on any one event to try and get back for, I just wanted to try and get back as quickly as possible. It just so happens that this is the event that I felt 100% ready to come back and play.
"I might take some precautionary measures next time because I rolled my right ankle in 2013... obviously I did it a little bit worse here on my left. I'll maybe wear ankle braces on both ankles but I'm not going to stop doing what I do. I enjoy that part of my life, having that normality in my life. It's something I've done since I was a kid... I won't stop doing it."
World number one McIlroy admitted that he was lucky to avoid surgery, which would have ruled him out of the final major of the year.
As injuries go, it could have been worse. I was lucky that I didn't do more damage. Thankfully, after five weeks of hard work and rehab, I'm back playing.
"I thought I'd broken it because as soon as I went over it, I heard a snap," he said.
"Obviously that was the ligament that snapped and then as well as that, I tore the joint capsule. I looked down and in 30 seconds, it got the size of a tennis ball.
"When I got the scan that night, it showed I totally ruptured one ligament and had a grade two in the other. If that had been a total rupture in that, then that would have required surgery.
"As injuries go, it could have been worse. I was lucky that I didn't do more damage. Thankfully after five weeks of hard work and rehab, I'm back playing."
McIlroy's ankle injury prevented him from defending his 2014 British Open title at St Andrews. However, the 26 year-old says he coped better than expected during his forced spell on the sidelines.
"I honestly thought it was going to be harder than it was. I thought I was going to miss it more than I did," he said.
"But if anything, having to sit those tournaments out, especially the Open Championship going back to St Andrews, which is probably my favourite venue in the world, it gave me a huge sense of perspective.
"When you're playing week in, week out and you're thinking about winning these tournaments, you get so wrapped up in what you're doing and your own little life and your own little bubble; sometimes you forget there's a bigger, wider world out there.
"No matter whether you win a golf tournament or not, people are going to get up on Monday morning and go to work and do their daily things and honestly not a lot of people care.
"Obviously it means a lot to you and people involved in golf, but in the big scheme of things, it's not life or death.
"And that's something that I can bring in with me this week, knowing that, OK, it's a big deal, but no matter what happens this week, only a very small percentage of the population really care."
