YORK golfer Simon Dyson admits there are times when he thinks his career may be over.

The six-time European Tour winner has struggled with a wrist injury for the last two years and tumbled to number 1436 in the world rankings.

His fortunes suffered another jolt last weekend when he was forced to retire from the Shenzhen International in China after just 12 holes.

Dyson, 39, now has two weeks to recover before his next scheduled tournament, the Open de Portugal at Morgado Golf Resort, which starts on May 11.

Speaking on his return from the Far East, Dyson revealed his frustration at not being able to recapture his best form.

"When you have gone from being one of the top golfers in Europe to missing cuts, it is hard to take," he admitted. "There are times when I think is going to be fine and there are times when I think 'yes it is over.'

"It is so frustrating," he added. "I have played lovely golf for 14 years but now my swing doesn't want to do what I want it to do. It is like being a marathon runner who has had knee surgery. After that, you can never feel the same."

It is now six years since Dyson, a professional at Malton and Norton Golf Club, won the last of his six European Tour events.

Between 2006-2011, he won the KLM Open three times, the Irish Open, the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, and the Indonesia Open. He was ranked among the top 50 players in the world and had climbed to number eight in the European Tour rankings.

However, problems with his left wrist led to the need for surgery two years ago and he spent nine months on the sidelines.

Since returning to action 15 months ago, he has won prize money in only 10 out of 33 tournaments and finished no higher than joint 44th (in the Portugal Masters in December).

Yet, on the flipside, he enjoyed his biggest return for three years only last month when he finished joint 49th at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic and picked up a cheque for approximately £9,500. Prior to his last two outings, he had also won prize money (totalling nearly 28,000 Euros) in five of this season's eight tournaments.

"I had been playing nicely this season, a lot better than last year, but not really had my scoring boots on!" he reflected. "Now I have got a couple of weeks off - which is probably a blessing - and I want to get back to basics and see how it goes."

Dyson, who missed the cut by six shots at the Trophy Hassan II in Morocco two weeks ago, was eleven over par and near the bottom of the leaderboard when he took the decision to quit the Shenzhen International.

He had hit bogeys on three of the first six holes and suffered the embarrassment of a quintuple bogey on the par five ninth.

"I wasn't playing very well last weekend and I hit a couple of shots in bunkers that jarred my wrist," he said. "There was no point just carrying on for the sake of it and doing more damage."

Asked how his wrist is likely to affect his career going forward, Dyson says 'only time will tell?' It is abundantly clear to anyone that he is far from happy with his swing and only a solid performance in Portugal next month will help rebuild his confidence.