Rory McIlroy's hopes of defending his title suffered a major blow as Denmark's Joachim B Hansen made the most of his late entry into the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.
Outside the projected cut after 11 holes of his second round, McIlroy birdied four of his last seven holes to card a 72 to lie six shots off the halfway lead held by Spain's Rafael Cabrera-Bello.
The world number two was optimistic that he could exploit the slightly softer conditions for the early starters on Saturday to get back into contention and began brightly with a birdie on the second.
However, the four-time major winner followed that with four pars before a bogey on the seventh, while things went from bad to worse with a double-bogey six on the ninth.
At two under par McIlroy was eight shots behind 2012 champion Cabrera-Bello and seven adrift of Hansen, who had set the early clubhouse target after a spectacular 64.
Hansen only got into the event shortly before teeing off on Thursday as a replacement for his injured compatriot Thomas Bjorn and made the halfway cut on the mark of one under after rounds of 72 and 71.
But the Challenge Tour graduate made a flying start to his third round with three straight birdies and after a bogey on the fifth, started the back nine in even better fashion with an eagle on the 10th followed by four more birdies.
France's Gregory Bourdy and Belgium's Nicolas Colsaerts were also safely in the clubhouse on seven under after matching rounds of 66 at Emirates Golf Club.
Source: PA
