Last year's European No 1 Robert Karlsson will miss next week's Open Championship because of his left eye problem.

The 39-year-old Ryder Cup star, joint seventh at Royal Birkdale last summer, has not played since the European Open at the end of May.

The injury has been affecting his balance as well as his vision. It was originally thought to be an inner ear infection, but then Karlsson was discovered to have fluid behind his retina.

He has been told it could take four to six months to clear up, but having started to suffer early this year the Swede had been hopeful he might recover in time for The Open at Turnberry.

"Apparently it's quite common for men between the ages of 25 and 50 with stressful jobs," Karlsson said.

"There's never a good time for these things to happen, but I'm just looking forward to getting through it and getting back to playing.

"When that is, though, I just don't know. I'm taking it week by week.

"If I had a normal job it would not be a problem - I'd just take things a bit easy.

"I don't feel bad at all, which is a bit annoying and frustrating, and my doctor has said that if I have to play I could, but if I did it would most likely take longer to get through this.

"So for the moment I'm taking a couple of eye drops and some vitamins.

"Light and dark shades of green started to float together if I can put it that way and in the PGA at Wentworth it was bad - everything started to look flat.

"I went to see (sports physiotherapist) Dale Richardson, who did some balance tests and said I was way out.

"My depth vision had gone and where I noticed it most was with chip shots and bunker shots. When the ball was up in the air I just couldn't judge how far it was going.

"I also couldn't tell whether trees were 150 yards away or 200 and I couldn't read a newspaper with my left eye.

"The doctors took pictures of my eye and said it was a water blister behind the retina and quite a bad one."

Also out of The Open is New Zealander Tim Wilkinson, who came through the American qualifier but has since needed thumb surgery.

No replacements have been called up at this stage since the field is set to be 156-strong even without them.