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Brooks Koepka's Masters up in air due to knee issue

Brooks Koepka's status for the Masters is in doubt as he will undergo medical evaluations on his right knee to determine how to proceed.

Koepka's agent, Blake Smith, confirmed a Golfweek.com report in which Koepka said he sprained his right knee last week. The four-time major champion on Sunday withdrew from this week's Players Championship.

"No timeframe as of right now,'' Koepka told Golfweek when asked if he would be back in time for the Masters. "We will know more after the consultation.''

Koepka, 30, did not say how the injury occurred, only that "an accident happened while I was with my family over the weekend. We are doing everything possible to make sure we are back as soon as possible.''

It is but another in a long list of setbacks over the past 18 months for Koepka, who seemed to be emerging from his injury woes. He won the Waste Management Phoenix Open for his eighth PGA Tour victory last month and contended two weeks ago at the WGC-Workday Championship, finishing in a tie for second behind winner Collin Morikawa.

The injury, however, is not to his bothersome knee, the left, which endured stem cell treatment in August of 2019. Koepka reinjured the knee at a tournament that year in South Korea when he slipped on a wet path and ended up missing the Presidents Cup.

He returned in 2020, still the No. 1-ranked player in the world, but saw his ranking slip as his game went with it. Koepka, a four-time major winner, was in contention at the PGA Championship but ended up missing the FedEx Cup playoffs and decided to get more treatment for knee and hip problems, causing him to miss the U.S. Open.

Koepka tied for seventh at last year's Masters and was runner-up to Tiger Woods by 1 shot in 2019.