Gareth Maybin admitted he was "gutted" that the wrist injury that sidelined him for 20 months flared up and forced him to pull out of the Joburg Open.

The 36-year-old from Ballyclare reappeared in the Dimension Data Pro-Am on the Sunshine Tour last week and was preparing for a European Tour outing on his medical exemption at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington when his wrist prevented him from teeing it up in Thursday's first round.

"Absolutely gutted to have to withdraw from @JoburgOpen_ with same wrist issue," Maybin tweeted.

The 2008 Qingdao Golf Open winner lost his European Tour card at the end of 2014 and had hoped to play on the Challenge Tour the following season, before suffering a serious wrist injury.