Harrington details horror injury after player accidentally hit him with club

PADRAIG Harrington detailed a freak injury that happened in 2017 when the World Golf Hall of Famer has his elbow smashed in by a wayward swing.

The horror incident happened whilst the golf icon was coaching an amateur in June of that year during ahead PGA Tour event at TPC Southwind in Memphis.

Dublin’s Harrington feared his bone was shattered after the freak accident.

The three-time major had been due to play his third PGA Tour tournament in succession when he helped out an unnamed amateur player in need of some tips.

Rathfarnham ace Harrington was helping the player with his hook when the brutal smash occurred.

Speaking with DP World Tour social media team, he explained: “I was teaching this guy on the golf course, who had a hook. And I said, ‘I can sort out that hook for you in 30 seconds,’

“And I got into him, shoulder to shoulder to show him the move he needed to do. I was standing with my right shoulder to his left shoulder, mimicking the move – you do this, right – and showing him what to do.

“So, I stepped at 45 degrees and he kept swinging, he swung through at hit me right below the elbow.”

The 52-year-old then described his shock after the incident as the pain kicked in and the a gash opened up on his elbow.

He added: ‘I assumed for a minute or two, what just happened, then you get the pain.

“Luckily I had an golf cart with and ice bucket on the golf cart, and I just walked over and stuck my elbow in it. So, within ten seconds I had it in ice water.

“Within a minute with the pain, I could fell literally nothing in my arm because I had it all iced up, I had it compressed within a minute, I’d an ice bag around it.

“If anybody every gets banged in the elbow it comes up like a tennis ball, but I’d no swelling. Even though I had six stitches or something like that, it split the bursar sac but I’d a remarkably good recovery.”

Lucky for the Irishman, he was back in action just three weeks later as nothing was broken but had to withdraw for that event.

2017 was a tough year for Harrington as he played just seven events due surgery on a trapped nerve in his neck.