A recurrence of the rib injury which saw him miss three months earlier in the season, saw Paul Casey have to retire from the final round of the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai.

The 32 year old Englishman completed two holes of his final round at the Sheshan International Golf Club but was unable to continue after feeling pain in his intercostal muscle once again.

Casey immediately made plans to return to the United States to see a specialist, meaning he will miss next week’s UBS Hong Kong Open. A decision will be made next week in relation to his participation in the season-ending Dubai World Championship in two weeks time.

Guy Kinnings, Casey’s manager at IMG, said: “He’s had pain before but he felt it severe enough to realise that it was something different.  We always agreed that if he felt that, he would stop.  So I’m going to get him home (to America) tonight to see a specialist he's been working with.

“He's sufficiently concerned to want to see him straight away because he doesn't know if this means a recurrence which will mean him out for a while or maybe just a worrying tweak and he’ll be okay. But for sure, he needs to go do that straight away.

“So he'll get back there. I'm not going to make any decisions beyond just saying he can't play Hong Kong, which he is hugely disappointed about.  But he can't right now.  He needs to go get it looked at.

“He was going to play Hong Kong, Dubai, and then I think Tiger's event and that was it. So, you know, as you can imagine, he still very much felt he had a chance to win The Race to Dubai. That's why he's been aiming to come back this week and next week. So we are just going to have to wait and see.”