Jon Rahm is on the grounds at Pinehurst Resort & Country Club, though an inconvenient foot injury may hinder the LIV Golf League's stars chances at holding up a second U.S. Open trophy.

“Oh, it's a concern,” Rahm replied at his pre-tournament press conference on Tuesday in North Carolina when asked about his foot. “It's doing better. It's doing better. But definitely still in pain.”

The 29-year-old was forced to withdraw from LIV Houston this past weekend. He received treatment on his foot before the first round and appeared to be in noticeable discomfort on the course. He was a bogey-free five-under par through 14 holes before a double-bogey on 18. He WD'd shortly thereafter.

On Tuesday, Rahm said his team still isn't exactly sure what the injury is — only that it hurts.

“We've been trying to figure it out because I think that the closest term would be a lesion on the skin. If I were to show you, it's a little low in between my pinky toe and the next toe.” (Cue your ‘Lesion XIII' jokes).

“I don't know how or what happened, but it got infected. The pain was high. On the Saturday round, Saturday morning, I did get a shot to numb the area. It was supposed to last the whole round, and by my second hole I was in pain already.

“The infection was the worrisome part. The infection is now controlled, but there's still swelling and there's still pain. There's a reason I walked out here in a shoe and a flip-flop, trying to keep the area dry and trying to get that to heal as soon as possible.

“But I can only do what I can do. The human body can only work so fast.”

The 2021 U.S. Open champion had yet to bag an individual win on LIV, though he ranks second in the points standings. His team, Legion XIII, won the first event of the year (Mayakoba) sits in second place.

Rahm has struggled in the first two majors of 2024. The 2023 Masters winner finished T45 at Augusta National and missed the cut at at the PGA Championship at Valhalla. Prior to both events, the Spaniard acknowledged PGA Tour FOMO.

At Pinehurst, Rahm pushed back on the notion that he's unhappy with his $300 million jump to LIV — a move he made under the assumption the framework agreement between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf's backer, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), would soon be finalized.

“I'm in a happy place,” Rahm said. “It's not like I've been playing bad, even though a lot of you make it sound like I'm playing bad. I had two bad weeks … I've been top 10 and had a chance to win in most of the tournaments I've played, and then unfortunately Augusta and PGA wasn't my best showings. But yeah, I'm happy.

I mean, it's been a wonderful career so far. And yeah, it hasn't been the best first half of the year, but there's been many times where I haven't had a great start, but that doesn't mean you can't have a great finish.”

A trio of Masters champs, Rahm, Hideki Matsuyama, and Jordan Spieth, will tee off on hole No. 1 at 1:36 p.m. ET on Thursday.