A SPRAINED ankle did not stop Eddie Pepperell from taking a big step closer to recapturing his European Tour card for next season.

The Abingdon golfer has achieved the first part of his mission at the Final Qualifying Stage, comfortably making the cut.

Pepperell carded a one-under-par 71 yesterday in the fourth round to reach six-under at the PGA Catalunya Resort in Spain.

It moved the Frilford Heath member up into a share of tenth place heading into the final 36 holes, after which the top 25 will receive a Tour card for next season.

The feat was made more impressive by the fact Pepperell has been hampered by an injury sustained on Sunday.

The 25-year-old needed treatment from the European Tour’s onsite physio unit for the issue, before posting photographs of the swelling on his Twitter account.

Resuming the tournament yesterday on five-under-par, Pepperell started strongly.

Beginning at the tenth tee, he picked up birdies at the 15th and 17th to reach the turn two-under for his round.

The gains were wiped out by dropped shots at the first and third, but a birdie at the fourth hole got him back in red figures for the day.

A run of five pars to finish secured a fourth successive sub-par round.

While he is six shots adrift of leader Nathan Kimsey, of more significance is the advantage over those outside the top-25, which stands at three strokes.

Pepperell tees off in the penultimate round at 9.10am (GMT) today.

He is playing alongside by 2009 USPGA Championship winner YE Yang, from South Korea, and Dutchman Sebastian Heisele.