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Stenson confident elbow up to rigours of Ryder Cup

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Henrik Stenson (AP)
Henrik Stenson (AP)

Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines - Sweden's Henrik Stenson is confident a nagging elbow injury will not affect his Ryder Cup participation this week as Europe attempt to wrest the trophy back from the United States at Le Golf National.

The 42-year-old, selected as a captain's pick by Thomas Bjorn, is heading into his fifth Ryder Cup despite a season hampered by an injury to his left elbow.

"It's been dragging on a bit, but I mean, I've thought for the most part I've been fit enough to play competitive golf," said Stenson, the world number 24.

"It's been probably more a hindrance in the gym and not being able to do certain things and having to watch that a bit.

"But we hope that it's going to be completely gone there in a while, and yeah, we're just managing it, and it doesn't really affect my golfing capabilities at this point.

"It's just something we hope we can leave behind us shortly."

The 2016 British Open champion's preparations were compromised by the injury heading into this year's event at Carnoustie, while he withdrew from the Scottish Open as well as last month's first leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs in New Jersey.

Stenson has struck up a successful partnership with Justin Rose in recent Ryder Cups, and the two could again pair up for Friday's opening four-balls.

"We were teamed up together at Gleneagles (in 2014) and had tremendous success in that partnership," said Stenson.

"We didn't do quite as well at Hazeltine, but we still played well together. I think it's just having that trust when you are playing with a good friend and someone you've been out and playing with a lot, you trust him.

"And also, the part of feeling no regrets when you do hit a bad shot and you do miss, because that will happen."

Stenson played in all five sessions in the 17-11 defeat at Hazeltine, although a combination of his elbow troubles and Europe's team composition could result in a lighter workload this weekend.

"How much we play and so forth, we've got a very strong and deep team. I think there's a possibility of playing potentially a bit less than previous matches, but we'll see," said Stenson.

"It's still early doors, and we'll see what the pairings are going to be like."

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