LEE Westwood played on through the pain yesterday but it looks more likely that he will become world No 1 by taking time off next week than by finishing second at St Andrews tomorrow.

The Ryder Cup star, who suffered a recurrence of his calf injury during an opening 70 in the Dunhill Links Championship, added a levelpar 72 at the Home of Golf.

Needing a first or secondplace finish to dethrone Woods this weekend, Westwood is outside the top 30 at halfway.

If he misses his defence of the Portugal Masters next week, however, the 37-yearold from Worksop will overtake Woods in the rankings – calculated over a two-year period – at the end of this month.

‘‘It was pretty much the same as yesterday,’’ he said.

‘‘I’m just struggling with it and I’m probably just going to get through this week and make a decision.’’ Westwood chatted to former Ashes-winning captain Michael Vaughan, who is playing in the tournament.

‘‘I don’t like pulling out of tournaments, but Michael said when you get something like that you just need to take the time off and make sure it’s 110 per cent when you come back.’’ Asked if it could mean another lengthy break after this week – the Ryder Cup was his first competitive action since August 6 – he replied: ‘‘Could be, yeah.

‘‘My gut instinct is to get it better. I’m just consciously thinking about it and the longer the day goes on the worse it gets.

‘‘It’s not great and shutting down for the rest of the year is an option.’’