Golfing legend Paul McGinley has expressed his concerns over Rory McIlroy's recent form and behaviour ahead of the , saying "this is not normal Rory". Despite McIlroy's historic Masters win, which , making him only the sixth man to achieve such a feat, his prospects at the US Open .

Just two months on from his triumph at Augusta, McIlroy's performance levels have dipped dramatically, with factors including complacency, and the resurgence of rival Scottie Scheffler seemingly contributing to his downturn. Following a brief break after the Masters, McIlroy's showing at the PGA Championship was underwhelming, and he delivered one of his worst statistical performances at the RBC Canadian Open last week.

The Northern Irishman is therefore not the favorite to come away with a win at the dreaded Oakmont Country Club. McIlroy himself acknowledged in his pre-tournament press conference that he's still riding the wave from his April Masters victory, a goal he had been chasing for over a decade.

And his former Ryder Cup captain McGinley, having observed McIlroy's body language and energy levels during that press conference, has cast doubts on McIlroy's readiness for the upcoming challenge.

The Irishman said on Sky Sports: "You'd have to say it was very worrying looking at his press conference there. His eyes weren't alive. The energy was not there. He certainly didn't have the pointy elbows the way we saw coming into the Masters. [At the Masters] he was a man on a mission, he was a man on a bounce, he was a man out to prove something. 'Get out of my way, here I come.'

"You could see that and feel the energy. You don't see it at the moment. I know from my own experience, when you win tournaments, you check out. You don't feel the same. You want to be there and you put in the energy but something inside you is just missing.

"It takes some time for that to reset and I think he's going through a period of that. He's completed a Grand Slam - it's a huge achievement. I'm no psychologist but it looks like the air has been sucked out of him a little since that, not just in the way he's played but in his press conferences.

"It's very un-Rory-like to have such low energy. This is not normal Rory. This is not when he's at his best in my opinion. I think he's at his best when he's p***ed off or following off a big loss or something that went wrong."

McIlroy confessed in Canada last week that finding motivation and grinding like he did prior to the Masters has been difficult. He went on to add on Tuesday: "You dream about the final putt going in at the Masters but you don't think about what comes next." When asked about his plan for the next phase of his career, McIlroy was unable to provide an answer, stating: "I have no idea. I'm sort of just taking it tournament by tournament at this point."

And reflecting on his shambolic display in Canada, he said: "It makes it easier to reset in some way, to be like, 'Okay, I sort of need to get my stuff together here and get back to the process and sort of what I'd been doing for that seven months from October last year until April this year.'"