McIlroy: 'You might not see me until next year'

Rory McIlroy's PGA Championship is finished, and so might be his 2017 season.

As former No. 1 David Duval suggested early Sunday morning, it appears McIlroy may shut it down for the remainder of the 2017 campaign, which in turn would see the crowning of new FedEx Cup champion.

"I don't know what I'm going to do," McIlroy told reporters after a final-round 68. "You might not see me until next year. You might see me in a couple of weeks' time."

The Northern Irishman came into the season with high expectations, but suffered a rib injury during the South African Open, and it's never fully healed.

"It's a tough one because I can go out there and play and I can shoot decent scores," said McIlroy. "But when I come off the course as I said I can feel this left rhomboid go into spasms ... inside my left arm goes numb. So I'm just ... yeah ... I don't know what to do."

The 28-year-old has slowly started to find his game, and feels he's still capable of winning the playoffs, but he's already got his sights set for The Masters in early April.

"I feel like I'm capable and playing well enough to give myself a chance in it, but at the same time April's a long way away and that's the next big thing on my radar."

Although the Ulsterman was sidelined twice in efforts to heal his rib, the layoff periods weren't sufficient to recover from this sort of injury.

"It's eight full weeks of rest before you start to rehab it and then you go again."