You would expect Rory McIlroy’s prominence at the South Africa Open to be of little surprise but the player admitted shock after a back problem left him on the brink of withdrawing before the second round.

McIlroy shot a 68 for a total of nine under par and a leaderboard position three strokes adrift of the halfway leader, Graeme Storm. McIlroy was two over par after seven holes, a matter placed into appropriate context by the four-times major winner thereafter.

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“I’m actually surprised I’m standing here, I actually thought about pulling out before even teeing off,” McIlroy said. “I tweaked my back somehow. The first few shots weren’t very comfortable and it still isn’t really comfortable. I can’t really take a deep breath because I’ve done something to my upper back. I’m going to go get some treatment. Considering that, I played well, stuck at it and hopefully I can feel better tomorrow.

“I don’t want to withdraw, it would let a lot of people down so that’s why I kept going.”

If this hardly represents the ideal start to 2017 for McIlroy, who is using new equipment in South Africa, his eight-under-par run from the 8th to 16th tee at least gave some cause for comfort.

“The middle of the round was good,” McIlroy said. “Once I got it going and saw putts going in I got some momentum, which was nice. I was disappointed to finish the way I did, I thought I hit a good shot on 17, it just pitched a bit too far. Then at 18 I was probably just rushing a bit to get in before the [bad] weather. Overall, the start and the finish wasn’t great but everything in between was pretty good and I’m still in contention heading into the weekend.”