Australia’s newest Major Champion surprised many when he revealed he arranged for an MRI after ‘tweaking’ his back earlier this week while bending down to remove a box from under his motor home

The injury forced Day out of Wednesday’s Barclays Championship Pro-Am and also meant cancelling a first formal press conference since his PGA Championship victory.

Day’s management team arranged for the 27-year old to visit the nearby St. Peter’s Hospital in New Bruswick on Wednesday and in a move that proved very timely for the Queenslander.

“My trainer/physio had been speaking with me about having an MRI ahead of the Play-Offs, just to see how things were going structurally in my back,” said Day after posting a two-under par opening round 68 in ideal scoring conditions on the Plainfield CC course.

Jason Day posts a round of 68 and then reveals he undertook an MRI a day earlier on his injured back.

“But then I ended up kind of in a perfect world where I kind of tweated my back Tuesday night, and then on Wednesday I ended up having to take time off and go to one of the hospitals down here in New Brunswick.

“I had an MRI on my back and structurally, everything has improved since last year. Really just trying to push that disc back in.

“Looking back I really should not have been doing what I was doing in pulling a box out from under the bus.  It was just a weirdest thing but then I have tweaked my back just lifting up a pillow.”

And Day admitted helping push a broken down six-seater motorises golf cart out of the way on Tuesday ‘didn’t help the cause’.

Day looked to be in a little discomfort in playing his drive down the 16th but when asked singled out also the 12th hole as experiencing some pain in his back.

Newly-crowned PGA Champion Jason Day admits pushing this broken down cart on Tuesday didn’t help his back.

“The 12th and 16th were two drives where I just tried to hit a little bit harder and once in transition it happened, and with my swing being quick, it crunches down on the facet joint on the disc at certain points,” he revealed.

“Once I felt that at the top of the swing,then everything kind of fell off balance and I hooked the drive.

“So there were a couple of swings out there that hurt with that one on 16 definitely hurting after a marvellous pitch shot, but then once everything started warming-up I was fine after that.”