Jason Day’s troublesome left thumb has been placed in a cast as he tries to efficiently overcome his injury-plagued start to the year.

Day’s doctors took the precautionary measure to stop the 26-year-old using his hand in day-to-day activities and re-aggravating the problem.

Having withdrawn from this week’s US PGA event in Hilton Head, Day is still hopeful of a return at the Players Championship in early May.

Despite clean scans, the cast is being used to allow the thumb injury to heal quicker, Day’s manager Bud Martin confirmed.

They believe things like playing with and picking up his son Dash could slow down the healing process, so this should allow things to settle down quicker.

The world No.5 missed seven weeks of golf after his win in the World Golf Championships Match Play Championship, withdrawing from the WGC Cadillac Championship and the Arnold Palmer Invitational before playing in last week’s Masters.

Despite some lingering pain and inflammation, Day battled to a tie for 20th, 10 strokes behind winner Bubba Watson.

When reached via text message, Day insisted the injury would be better soon and, other than trying to explain to his 21-month-old why he couldn’t pick him up, he expected the time off would be extremely helpful.

The handful of withdrawals could put pressure on Day to play more tournaments later in the year to reach his minimum of 15 to satisfy membership.

Should he miss the Players Championship on May 8-11, his next stop would be the Byron Nelson Championship the following week in Texas, where he claimed his first win in 2010.

Following on is the Memorial Tournament (May 29 – June 1) in Ohio, before the June 19-22 US Open, where he was second last year.