Rory McIlroy has recovered sufficiently from a back injury to begin his defence of the Players Championship.

The world number two showed no obvious signs of discomfort when using his driver to tee off on the first hole at 14:12 local time (18:12 GMT) and found the middle of the fairway with a 329-yard tee shot.

McIlroy only arrived at TPC Sawgrass on Wednesday for the PGA Tour’s flagship event, having opted to stay at home for treatment on the injury that forced him to pull out of last week’s event at Bay Hill.

On the eve of the tournament, the 36-year-old said “the drugs are working wonders” and “all indications are pointing in the right direction” but that he was taking it “hour by hour” and his participation would be a last-minute decision.

McIlroy is, however, confident he will not aggravate the injury by playing this week, with the Masters four weeks away.

“It’s not structural, it’s not joint – it’s purely a muscular sort of discomfort and fatigue,” he said.

“Obviously I’ll listen to the professionals. But there’s nothing that I can do that’s going to harm that.”

On Wednesday the Northern Irishman did not hit a driver or fairway wood on the range, instead focusing on clubs up to his six-iron.

He then went to practise his chipping and putting on the course, which is at the PGA Tour’s headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

However, he hit shots with his driver while warming up for his opening round on Thursday.

McIlroy is hoping to join Jack Nicklaus as a three-time winner of the event, having also won the title in 2019 – and the first to win all three of them at Sawgrass.

The five-time major winner withdrew from last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill before his third round on Saturday.

He felt “a small twinge” in his lower back during his gym warm-up and experienced “muscle spasms” on the driving range.

The first major of the year, the Masters – which McIlroy won last year to complete a career Grand Slam – begins on 8 April.