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Family plans with fiancée may have led to McIlroy's Olympics exit

Updated / Wednesday, 22 Jun 2016 15:36
Are Rory and Erica preparing for the pitter patter of tiny feet?
Are Rory and Erica preparing for the pitter patter of tiny feet?

Rory McIlroy shocked fans with news that he will not be competing at this summer’s Rio Olympics due to the threat of the Zika virus. Many of them have been quick to speculate that the real reason is that the sportsman is planning on starting a family with his fiancée in the near future.

The 27-year-old Irish golfer, who is reportedly set to walk down the aisle with Erica Stoll at the five star Ashford Castle in Co. Mayo in December, opened up about his plans to start a family last month.

Last month McIlroy admitted that he and his partner of two years were concerned about the long-term effects of the virus, if he was to contract it while in Brazil. The mosquito-borne virus has been linked to brain defects in newborn babies.

There's going to be a point in the next couple of years where we're going to have to think about starting a family. Right now I'm ready to go but I don't want anything to affect that.

But I have been reading a lot of reports about Zika and there have been some articles coming out saying that it might be worse than they're saying and I have to monitor that situation.

McIlroy announced his decision not to go to Brazil in a statement this morning, saying that "my health and my family's health comes before everything else".

"Even though the risk of infection from the Zika virus is considered low, it is a risk nonetheless and a risk I am unwilling to take."

McIlroy popped the question to Stoll near the Eiffel Tower in December with an engagement ring rumoured to have cost around €500,000.

He revealed shortly after that his proposal plans were almost foiled due to the Paris terror attacks in November.

“We had planned the trip in May but we were unsure whether to go after what happened. So we decided to go and if we didn’t like it, or the mood of the place, we were going to go somewhere else,” he said.

“But when we got there, it just felt great. There were security checks as you went into the shops but people were just getting on with things.

“So we felt comfortable, and I thought if I proposed at the start of the trip it might make it even better. So we went out for dinner and that was that,” he revealed to the press during a Q&A at the European Facebook HQ in Dublin.

McIlroy's engagement news came just over a year after he parted ways with his then-fiancée Caroline Wozniacki. The golfer broke off his engagement to Wozniaki just days after they sent out the wedding invitations. 

He issued a statement afterwards saying "The problem is mine. The wedding invitations issued at the weekend made me realise that I wasn't ready for all that marriage entails"

Whatever the real reason for his latest announcement, the news has been met with considerable anger and derision on social media.

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