LONDON (PA) -- Jose Maria Olazabal, out of action since August with rheumatism, is hoping to return to golf in late January. Already, though, he knows it will be difficult to earn a spot on the 2008 European Ryder Cup team.
The 41-year-old Spaniard, who recently received the British PGA Recognition Award at a ceremony, started hitting balls again only a week ago after suffering problems in his shoulders and groin.
His latest layoff has, of course, revived memories of the 18 months he was out of the game in the mid-1990s. On that occasion, he feared his future would be in a wheelchair after rheumatoid arthritis in both his feet was initially diagnosed. But that was changed to a prolapsed disc in his lower back.
Olazabal came back to win a second Masters title and make three more Ryder Cup teams, the most recent of them in September of 2006, when he won all of his three matches in the record-equalling European victory in Ireland.
In the 2007 season, though, he managed only one top-10 finish -- third in THE PLAYERS Championship in Florida in May -- missed the British Open with a knee injury and then saw his health go downhill again.
"I was worried I was going to be out for a long time again, because of the amount of pain I went through," he said. "I forced myself to play the PGA [Championship, his last appearance] to fulfill my number of tournaments in the States, even though I knew my condition was not the best.
"I've seen a lot of doctors, and they've done all kinds of tests. They know it's some kind of rheumatism," he explained. "But they don't know what was caused it, and it's just a matter of treating the symptoms until they go away."
In September, he returned to Munich to see specialist Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfahrt, the doctor who saved his career last time.
"He came up with the same diagnosis this time, so at the moment I'm seeing a doctor in Pamplona an hour from my home -- and last Friday the news was very good," Olazabal reported. "According to him, in six weeks or so I should be able to start really practicing pretty much normally -- and then it's just a matter of time.
"The blood tests were good, and the swelling's pretty much gone," he said. "The next few weeks will determine how I feel."
While he was been resting at home -- "watching them make birdies and bogeys on television" -- Justin Rose and Lee Westwood have piled up more than a million Ryder Cup points.
Olazabal, of course, is still on zero, because the qualifying started in September.
"I have a lot of ground lost -- and being realistic I won't have played for five months; whenever I start, maybe Dubai, I think it's going to be a slow start," he said. "That's going to make it very difficult, but I've not given up hope. Hope is the last thing you should lose.
"It's tough watching. But it's not a decision I took -- I was forced. It would have been different if I had said I had had enough."
Whatever happens, the man who with Seve Ballesteros formed the most successful partnership in Ryder Cup history -- only two losses in 15 matches -- will be in Louisville for the defense of the trophy.
That is because he was named in May as an assistant to captain Nick Faldo, albeit with the proviso that he first and foremost wanted to play his way into the team again.
"I hope I will last until September!" joked Olazabal, who could well be the man to take over from Faldo as captain for the 2010 Ryder Cup in Wales if Colin Montgomerie decides he wants to wait until the 2014 match in Scotland.
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