World number one Rory McIlroy has defended his decision to drop out of last week's HSBC Champions.

The Northern Irishman and Tiger Woods were criticised by the tournament's organisers for pulling out of the event but McIlroy has insisted that he had to give it a miss due to fears of fatigue.

"It's a World Golf Championship, it's a big event, it was a tough one to miss, especially watching it on TV," BBC Sport quotes McIlroy as saying. "But I can't play every week.

"If I'd played that, I would have played five in a row to finish the season, after playing in Turkey and playing the Ryder Cup and all the FedEx Cup stuff. It's just too much, and that was the one I cut."

Meanwhile, recent reports have claimed that the 23-year-old is close to signing a multi-million dollar deal with global sports brand Nike.