Rickie Fowler Rested For Saturday's Ryder Cup Matches Amid Reports of Illness

Rickie Fowler has become the only player in this year's Ryder Cup to miss an entire day of action as rumors continue to swirl that the American may be suffering from an illness.

Fowler played in the Friday morning foursomes session alongside Collin Morikawa, falling to a 2&1 defeat against Shane Lowry and Sepp Straka but was sat out of the afternoon's action.

He did not feature alongside Morikawa on Saturday morning and has now also not been selected for the afternoon's fourballs. He will next play in the singles on Sunday and is the only player who will play just two sessions this year.

Rumors have suggested that the 34-year-old may be suffering from an illness but US captain Zach Johnson refused to comment on individual conditions.

"I'm not going to get specific on individual guys. I don't think that's fair. I think it's irresponsible to say who is playing for what reason and who is not for what reason," he said when asked about Fowler yesterday.

However, he did allude to some illness in the camp, saying: "The bottom line is there have been some unforeseen things that we've had to navigate around, which is really unfortunate, in the sense of health. 

"It's not an excuse, because we have depth, but I'll just say, I'm grateful we have a team doctor."

Fowler is appearing in his fifth Ryder Cup but, in his absence, Team USA still have a mountain to climb to claw back on Europe's mammoth lead. 

Luke Donald's team won their third successive session on Saturday morning as America picked up just their first win to trail 9½-2½ heading into the Saturday afternoon fourballs.

The biggest final-day comeback in the tournament's history was a four-point deficit, achieved by USA in 1999 and Europe in 2012.