AFP NEW YORK - England's Luke Donald, recovering from surgery to an injured left wrist in New York, will miss next month's Ryder Cup battle and the rest of the 2008 season.

The Europeans will be bidding to win a record fourth straight contest at Valhalla in Kentucky from September 19-21.

Dr Andrew Weiland operated on 30-year-old Donald on Monday, having done similar surgery on baseball player Jason Giambi as well as a wrist operation for American golfer Jim Furyk.

It was at the US Open in June when Donald first hurt his wrist, and he has not played since.

“While there is never a good time for an injury, the timing of this injury was especially disappointing for me considering it forced me to miss the Open Championship (British Open) and it comes in a Ryder Cup year,” said Donald, who played in Europe's last two Ryder Cup victories.

“But taking proper care of it is my highest priority and I'm encouraged by Dr. Weiland's experience with this type of injury and his outlook towards my recovery and rehabilitation.”

Donald will start physical rehabilitation of the wrist at the end of September and should be able to start practising his short game by the end of the year.

“The injury Luke suffered is not all that uncommon for golfers and baseball players and I'm confident he will make a full recovery with the proper rehabilitation and training,” Dr Weiland said. “I'm extremely pleased how the surgery went.”

It is a big loss for European captain Nick Faldo, arguably as great a blow as losing Tiger Woods was for the Americans given his indifferent record in the event.

Faldo has two wild cards to hand out at the end of this month and if the top 10 stay as they are at the moment, Open runner-up Ian Poulter, Paul Casey, Colin Montgomerie and Darren Clarke are the main contenders - probably in that order - going into the final three qualifying events.

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