Rory McIlroy's painfully executed series of Instagram posts on his recovery from the ankle injury that forced him to miss his defence of The Open and the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational reached its nadir (or zenith) today.

As Golf.com's Cameron Morfit astutely pointed out, McIlroy's is "the first big sports comeback I can recall that's been announced with emojis."

Posting a picture of the interior of a jet with a UK passport in the foreground, he Instagrammed: "🇵🇹✈️🇺🇸👍🏼✌🏼⛳️"

The world No 1 may finally be sending a message to PGA officials at Whistling Straits that he'll be turning up for a practice round tomorrow to test his left ankle ahead of next week's PGA Championship. 

The 26-year old last event was the US Open, where he tied for ninth on June 21.

He then suffered a "total rupture of left ATFL (ankle ligament) and associated joint capsule damage in a soccer kickabout with friends on Saturday," July 4.

He's been practicing in Portugal and in videos posted to his Instagram account over the past few days, he appears to be showing no signs of discomfort.

If McIlroy tees it up next Thursday as expected, he will have gone seven and a half weeks without playing a competitive round.

He also took seven weeks off last winter and came back in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, finishing second to Gary Stal of France.