Former Ryder Cup Captain Ian Woosnam has questioned Colin Montgomerie's decision to leave Paul Casey out of next month’s team to play at Celtic Manor, describing it as “a bit strange”.

Woosnam, who led the European Team to victoryagainst the Americans in 2006, believes that the team will be weakened by the omission of Casey.

Casey has an impressive matchplay record. He won the 2006 World Match Play Championships at Wentworth and finished second at this year’s WGC Accenture Match Play event.

Because he failed to automatically qualify for the Ryder Cup team, Casey needed one of Monty’s wild card picks, but they went to Padraig Harrington, Edoardo Molinari and Luke Donald, all of whom are ranked below Casey.

"You cannot say that this is the strongest European team because the world No 9 is not in the team," he said. ‘You have to look at the selection system and make sure you have the strongest team possible."

‘The Americans are going to have some big hitters out there and I’m not going to say who Colin should have picked, but I did find it a  little bit strange"