Paul Casey suffered a recurrence of a rib injury which forced him to retire after just two holes of the final round of the HSBC Champions in Shanghai.

The 32-year-old has been out of action for three months with a torn interior oblique muscle, and managed only two holes on Sunday before withdrawing – which has seemingly wrecked his chances of winning the Race to Dubai.

The Englishman will return to the United States to see his long-term specialist, meaning he will miss this week’s UBS Hong Kong Open.

Guy Kinnings, Casey’s manager at IMG, said: “He’s had pain before, but he felt it severely enough to realise that it was something different. We always agreed that if he felt that, he would stop.

“I’m not going to make any decisions beyond just saying that he can’t play in Hong Kong, which he is hugely disappointed about. As you can imagine, he still very much felt that he had a chance to win The Race to Dubai, hence his aim to come back this week and next week. We are just going to have to wait and see.”

Meanwhile, Rory McIlroy’s fourth at the HSBC Champions meant that the Ulsterman closed the gap on Lee Westwood at the top of the Race to Dubai Money List to €52,000. Both players head to Hong Kong this week for the UBS Hong Kong Open where McIlroy was beaten last season in a play-off.

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