Padraig Harrington has admitted he is struggling to be fit for this week’s £1.2 million BMW International Open in Munich.
Last year’s runner-up, the Dubliner finished just one stroke behind John Daly who scored a mammoth 27-under-par, arrived in Germany straight from two weeks in America where he needed treatment for a neck injury on the course during the USPGA Championship.
While an ankle problem that also plagued his PGA challenge appears to have cleared, Harrington’s neck continued to hinder him during last week’s NEC International in Seattle with the world number eight never playing himself into contention.
And despite undergoing intense physiotherapy, the 30-year-old today conceded he is far from 100 per cent.
"I am struggling," admitted Harrington, who will celebrate his 31st birthday on Saturday. "I'm getting almost two hours of physio a day, I've had both the problems before so I know what I need to do with them.
"My left shoulder is causing the neck problem and I have to sort it out so it doesn't pull the neck out again.
"But I have good memories of this course after I came here in 1999 and had to finish second to make the Ryder Cup team and did exactly that."