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Flu-stricken golf star set to play in Masters with a BROKEN FINGER after suffering freak gym injury
Aussie star still hopeful of outdoing best performance at Augusta
A FLU-STRICKEN golfer is set to play at the Masters with a broken finger.
Min Woo Lee, 25, suffered a freak injury in the gym less than two weeks before the iconic opening golf major of the year.
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The Masters tees off on Thursday with the world's best players battling it for the famous green jacket and £2.55million in prize money.
But as if the challenge of four rounds of Augusta National was not tough enough, Lee has inadvertently made it a whole lot harder for himself.
That is because the Australian crushed the ring finger on his right hand on the final rep of his final set with a dumbbell on Saturday, March 30.
Lee visited the doctor after the accident, thinking the damage was not too bad.
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But further assessment showed he had broken the bone.
However, with just days to go until the Masters, Lee was practising his chip shots within 48 hours of the incident.
And he hit his first full swing with the driver on Friday, six days after the blow and six days before his opening tee shot on the first tee.
Lee may have to play with his hand bandaged up but is determined to give it a go.
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Speaking on Tuesday, he said: "It’s actually amazing how fast the recovery was.
"It was bruised, still swollen, but not actually that painful which is really strange.
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";Somehow recovering very good, so icing and elevating as much as I can.
“I still went to the gym last week as much as I could. Obviously didn't do that exercise.
"Every time I looked at that 20-pound dumbbell, yeah, gave it a death stare.
“It was a very lucky… it was probably the best worst thing."
To make matters worse, Lee went down with a cold on Sunday.
He joked: "I guess it wasn't the best prep, and I got the flu two days ago. Yeah, it's going great."
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Lee also tweeted a funny gif of a chef working hard in the kitchen and captioned it: "Was cooking too hard. Restaurant closed for now. Masters time now. Let Him Cook."
The popular golfer - who regularly gives fans brilliant insights into life on the PGA Tour - tied for 14th on his Masters debut in 2022 but missed the cut last year.
His best finish at a major was T5 at the 2023 US Open and he has four professional wins, taking him up to a career-high No31 in the world rankings.
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Lee added: “It’s my favorite place in the world.
"It is a very special place, and I'm really grateful to be here.”
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