Garcia considering quitting Dubai event

Dubai: World No 14 Sergio Garcia struggled against injury to complete his second round on Friday, carding a 67 to leave him nine under par for the tournament.

The 33-year-old Spaniard toyed with the idea of a withdrawing after straining his left shoulder but played on to card five birdies and an eagle, alongside two bogeys.

Garcia, who started his round on the ninth hole, said: “I told my caddie ‘if it doesn’t get better after 18, we’ll probably walk’. Because what I don’t want is to keep building up and not really recover it.

“Then, unfortunately, we started making birdies and eagles and I thought, ‘well, what do we do now?’.

“It’s in the back of the shoulder. But the problem is, because I’m trying to avoid that hurting, it gets my neck a little sore and my forearm and my triceps a little bit.

“We got treatment yesterday [Thursday] and felt better this morning [Friday], but as the day goes on, giving it more shots, it tightens up a little bit. So hopefully we’ll work it out again and see if we can get it better every day.”

Meanwhile, England’s Richard Bland withdrew with a back injury midway through his second round when two under par.