Woosie withdraws from Italian Open
Ian Woosnam will miss this week's Italian Open because of the leg problem which forced him to pull out of both the US Masters at Augusta a month ago and the Spanish Open on Saturday.
The tournament in Milan, which starts on Thursday, had been hoping to re-unite last year's two Ryder Cup captains, with American Tom Lehman having accepted an invitation to play.
Woosnam, 49, who 20 years ago was diagnosed as suffering from a progressive rheumatic disease, revealed: "It's like cramp and I keep going into spasm. I feel like I've got to go flat out just to swing, and I'm not going to play again until I feel better."
His disease is called ankylosing spondylitis and while it mainly affects the spine, it can also attack joints, tendons and ligaments and other areas such as the eyes and heart.
He has taken anti-inflammatories ever since, but last year started a new treatment of weekly injections each costing £200.
"It's called TNF and was developed about 10 years ago for rheumatoid arthritis," he said at the time.
"If I wanted to keep playing to a reasonable standard I needed to do this."
