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Cape Town - In July world No 1 golfer Rory McIlroy ruptured ligaments in his ankle playing soccer with friends, and now South African George Coetzee finds himself with a broken ankle after a freak accident surfing in Bali.
The world No 65, who finished in a tie for seventh at this year’s PGA Championship at Whistling Straights, posted a picture to his Instagram account on Saturday of his left leg in a cast.
"I just jumped off the board and it was shallower than I thought. My foot got stuck and I twisted around on it and it popped," Coetzee told Sport24.
"I heard a big pop and I knew something had gone."
Coetzee says that he will not let the injury stop him from surfing again.
"There’s no point in playing golf if I’m not going to be able to do other things that I enjoy. The whole point of doing well in your career is so that you can take time off and do the things that you enjoy," the winner of this year’s Tshwane Open and Mauritius Open said.
"I’m going to have fun and enjoy my life and play golf around it. You can’t only play golf, it’s going to drive you mad."
Coetzee broke his wrist mountain biking two years ago and has since given up that sport.
He is expected to be out of action for two to three months, and is hoping to play as much part as he can in the four-event end-of-year Finals Series of the Race to Dubai over the end of October and most of November.
"It’s six weeks in the cast. My best case scenario is that I might be ready in eight weeks and the worst case scenario is two to three months," he said.
