Colin Montgomerie is obviously the picture of health, with no need to visit the physiotherapy unit that trails around after the PGA European Tour. Otherwise, it's unlikely that, when asked to name a potential winner of this week's Irish Open, the Scot, who of course designed the course which bears his name, would have responded by nominating Padraig Harrington as his likely winner.

"With all respect to all competitors, this type of course would favour the higher ranked player. Harrington or Clarke or Westwood, that type of individual. Since we're here, I'll say Harrington," said Montgomerie.

But he was unaware that the Dubliner, who is ranked ninth in the world, had all the mobility of a man in a strait jacket after his old neck-cum-shoulder injury flared up again.

Yesterday, Harrington was in no condition to play at all due to the recurrence of the injury that has been an unwanted companion dating back to the US PGA championship in 2002. On that occasion, his condition was so crippling that he was forced to have on-course treatment from his sports therapist, Dale Richardson, having barely moved the ball off the first tee.

Since then, Harrington has undergone a physical regime designed to alleviate the affects of the injury.

"It's a manifestation of the same problem, coming from the C5. I've worked on it a hell of a lot, attempting to strengthen up my muscles around the neck," said Harrington, "but it flared up over the weekend and it is a pretty painful problem. I don't know if it is still locked up, but it is very tender, very sore. It's restricting my backswing and, to be quite honest, I couldn't play golf now. If the tournament was due to start today, I couldn't play."

Harrington had intensive physiotherapy on Monday night and again yesterday. The physio's prognosis? "He thinks he'll get me there. He's keen, he's happy. He thinks it has improved a lot. From past experiences, I've always managed to play. And the fact I've played (in the past) means I'm likely to play. I just don't feel like I'm capable of playing. I know this sort of injury. When I had it on the Friday (second round) of the Masters, it wasn't as bad, but I still couldn't swing the club properly, and it is worse now," said the player.

The injury is obviously a severe one, and is causing serious concern to Harrington, who added: "I certainly don't expect to be able to hit my driver properly, and this is all about driving out on this course."

He has put organisers on notice that he may be unable to play in today's pro-am, hoping that further physiotherapy may ease the problem sufficiently to enable him to tee-up in a championship in which he has finished runner-up twice in the past four years.