JOSE MARIA Olazabal has expressed the hope Paul Casey can return to fitness and still challenge for his Ryder Cup team. While Olazabal plays in this week’s ISPS Handa Wales Open, which tees off today at Celtic Manor – scene of the victory over the Americans two years ago, of course – Casey is out of action again.

The former world number three missed the first two months of the season after dislocating his shoulder snowboarding and has had more problems.

He pulled out of the Players’ Championship after nine holes, withdrew from the Volvo World Matchplay and after missing the halfway cut in the BMW PGA Championship by nine shots last Friday decided not to play the Memorial Tournament in Ohio.

“I feel really sorry for him. We all know how good he can play,” said the Spaniard. “All I am hoping is that he gets healthy again and shows form. I wish him the very best.”

Olazabal knows all about battling with injury. He was given a wild card into the 1995 Ryder Cup, but withdrew because of rheumatism in his feet.

Casey, the only player ever to hole-in-one to win a Ryder Cup game, is down in 27th place in the points race. There are still three months to go before the top 10 win automatic selection for Chicago, but first he has to start playing.

The only player in a current top-10 spot playing in Wales this week is Scotland’s Paul Lawrie, while there are just four survivors of the 2010 side in the field – brothers Francesco and Edoardo Molinari, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Ross Fisher, who since the match has dropped to 157th in the world.

Olazabal rates Lawrie “pretty much in” following his runners-up finish at Wentworth, but insists he did not make a special request of the European Tour to partner him for the second time in a month.

The last occasion was the Spanish Open and Lawrie reckoned he played “as bad as I can” in missing the cut. “I’m not going to judge a player on what happens in any given week,” said Olazabal.

This week’s field also includes 2010 captain Colin Montgomerie, who should not have any trouble sleeping on the eve of the event.

On Monday Montgomerie played 36 holes of US Open qualifying – without success – after driving from Wentworth to his Perthshire home and then back down to Surrey overnight.

Leading the Irish challenge in Wales are Peter Lawrie after his impressive display last week at Wentworth, where he finished fourth in the PGA Championship. He will be joined by Michael Hoey, Paul McGinley, Shane Lowry, Damien McGrane, Gareth Maybin and Simon Thornton.

WALES OPEN

Course: Twenty Ten Course, Celtic Manor, Newport.

Prize money: £1.8 million (€2.25 million, €300,000 to the winner).

Length: 7,378 yards. Par: 71.

Field: 156.

Course winners in field: Scott Strange, Jeppe Huldahl, Alex Noren.

Course overview: Opened in 2010 for the Ryder Cup. Long, exposed track with just four par fives, the first of which is 610 yards (second hole). Water and wind usually have a big part in the outcome.

Defending champion: Alex Noren.

Key attribute: Power.

On television: Sky Sports, 10am