Fans tear into Rory McIlroy on Twitter after Rio 2016 withdrawal

Rory McIlroy will not being going to Rio for the Olympics and Irish sports fans are up in arms.

Most of us get excited for the Olympics about a day before the quad-annual event begins. We become instant experts on hammer tosses, high jumps and that sport where you fling a baton and streamer around. It is the biggest sporting bandwagon on the planet and we all know that it's simply about your country winning as many medals as possible so you can laud them over your mates from other countries as if you won them yourself. So, when news broke this morning that Rory McIlroy would not be competing in Rio due to Zika virus fears, Irish sports fans took to Twitter to let the Holywood native have it. Irish boxer and Olympian Darren O'Neill, who missed out on qualification for Rio 2016 yesterday, reacted strongly: https://twitter.com/DarrenONeil/status/745546056876711937

There were claims that his supporting Northern Ireland at Euro 2016 changed his mind

https://twitter.com/midas1888/status/745547090281955328

Some tweets went below the belt

https://twitter.com/Guinnessta/status/745550339139502080 https://twitter.com/SirAlexas/status/745550323243065348 https://twitter.com/alexbhoy88/status/745538501563715584

Others felt it was a (no) monetary decision

https://twitter.com/MConallin/status/745550208163971072

Then the jokes started

https://twitter.com/henriksen1/status/745543984022335488 https://twitter.com/aoifeban/status/745538029024993280 https://twitter.com/LeanIago/status/745550524020203521 Expect this to run longer than the Olympics themselves.