Open 2014: Ian Poulter to play at Hoylake despite wrist injury

Poulter will be "chewing anti-inflammatories and painkillers all week"

Ian Poulter will play through the pain barrier at this week's Open Championship at Royal Liverpool.

An MRI scan has revealed no serious damage to the wrist injury suffered by the 38-year-old Englishman at last week's Scottish Open.

"It's good news," he told BBC Sport. "There's no tendon damage and no joint damage or bone.

"But I will still be chewing anti-inflammatories and painkillers all week."

Poulter, runner-up at Royal Birkdale in 2008 and tied third with Lee Westwood at Muirfield a year ago, injured his wrist last Friday, unsuccessfully attempting to make the cut at Royal Aberdeen.

"I hit a shot off an upslope," he said. "I jarred it and then had to go out of the rough on 18, needing to make four to make the cut, which didn't help.

"I've had a ganglion cyst on the wrist in the past. In fact, I've had three of them. Every one's been syringed. But, by jarring it, by taking the force of a whack, some of that fluid has come out of the joint and into the cyst sac. It's just touching on the nerve. But the pain is bearable."

Poulter, who starts his 2014 Open campaign at 09:37 BST on Thursday, alongside 2011 runner-up Dustin Johnson, missed the cut when Hoylake returned to the Open rota in 2006. But that negative experience, he insists, has long since been erased from the memory bank.

"I've erased all of them," added a half-smiling Poulter. "I really don't pay any attention to missed cuts.

"I get rid of them. I don't like them. I detest them, and I erase them. I really don't need to waste any of my brain cells thinking back to a bad week.

"This is a totally different golf course. In 2006, it played firm and fast. It's a lot softer and greener now.

"The depth of the field is probably stronger than 2006 as maybe Tiger Woods is not quite as strong as what he was then, but nobody is going to write Tiger off until it's over. And there's a lot of good players in good form right now."