Paul Casey has dislocated his right shoulder whilst snowboarding in Colorado, he looks likely to be out for two months.
It means that Casey will miss the start of the 2012 season, meaning he will be unlikely to be able to defend two of the titles he won last season, the Volvo Golf champions title, which begins on the 19th January in South Africa, and the Abu Dhabi Championship, which he has won three times in the last six years. Speaking about missing the tournaments, Casey said: "I am very frustrated as I was really looking forward to getting off to a fast start in 2012, I've always played well in the desert and the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship is one of my favourite events of the year, so I will particularly hate sitting out that one." "The good new is that the experts I've seen say I don't need surgery, and having already started my rehabilitation exercises, I should be back hitting balls in a few weeks." added the world number 20. The major worry for Casey is missing out of Ryder Cup qualification, as any long period out of the game will leave him playing catch up to get to the top of the World and European money lists. Casey faced a similar situation before the last Ryder Cup, as he missed out on automatic qualification following a rib injury, despite managing to make it into the world top 10. Casey will be determined to make it this time though, his disappointment at not being chosen as one of Colin Montgomerie's wildcard picks was clear to all, and he will want to avoid a similar experience this time around.
