Jamie Donaldson slices open his finger after Ryder Cup hero involved in chainsaw accident

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Ryder Cup star Jamie Donaldson has been forced to delay his first appearance of 2016 after he sliced open his little finger in a chainsaw accident.

The 40-year-old Welshman posted a picture on his Twitter account to reveal the gruesome injury that looks set to keep him out of the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship this week as well as the Singapore Open, although by the looks of his tweet he hopes to return in time to play in the Dubai Desert Classic at the start of February.

Alongside the picture that showed a nasty laceration to his small finger on his left hand that had needed many stitches, Donaldson said: “So folks in my time off decided to have a fight with a chainsaw and lost! Oops!! C u [sic] in Dubai.”

His absence in Abu Dhabi this week is all the more painful given it’s a tournament that Donaldson won in 2013, a result which helped spark his rise through the ranks to star in Europe’s successful 2014 Ryder Cup campaign and break into the top 25 in the world rankings last year.

At least Donaldson doesn’t need to worry about qualifying for the first major of the year, as his participation at the Masters in April as well as The Open in July has already been confirmed due to his victory at the Thailand Golf Championship in December.

But while the victory consolidated his place inside the top 50 after finishing the year ranked 43rd, his defining moment remains sinking the winning putt at Gleneagles to secure Paul McGinley’s Europe side victory over the United States in the Ryder Cup, and he will hope to be given the chance to do the same this year when the two side’s clash at Hazeltine National Golf Course.