Andy Murray makes Wimbledon declaration after undergoing surgery on back issue | Tennis | Sport
Andy Murray will leave a decision on playing Wimbledon “until the very last moment” after revealing he started hitting tennis balls only four days after undergoing spinal surgery. The Scot admitted: “I would say it’s probably more likely that I’m not able to play singles right now.”
But he added: “ I’m also f****** doing rehab 24/7 to try to give myself that opportunity to play there again.”
The double Wimbledon champion, who believes playing doubles with his brother Jamie was more possible, revealed he would have risked serious health “complications” without an immediate operation on his spinal cyst.
He also confirmed he will “most likely” retire after Wimbledon and the Olympics if he is able to play. But he added he would make another farewell appearance if he is unable to get back on court in the next month.
The Scot, 37, limped out of the cinch Championships after revealing he had been suffering “neural pain” in his lower back which caused a loss of “power” and “co-ordination” in his right leg.
He went under the knife on Saturday and admitted making a decision on a potential farewell Wimbledon appearance was “hard” with the draw at 10am on Friday.
Murray explained: “Obviously the last week’s been pretty tough. There’s obviously a lot going on with me planning on finishing at the Olympics. Not every situation and not every injury is clear cut.
“If there was no chance of me being able to play Wimbledon, which I thought was going to be the case a week ago when I’d had my initial consultations and stuff. I was told that this was going to be six to 12 weeks. I wouldn’t be sitting here today just waiting until the last minute to have my name in the draw.
“I’m trying everything I can to play, I’m practising on the court, I’m rehabbing and trying to accelerate this process to give myself a chance to play. It has been mentioned to me, are you going to withdraw before the draw at 10am on Friday? And I’m like: ‘Well, no, I’m not. I’m going to wait until the last minute to see if I’m going to be able to and I’ve earned that right to do that’.
“This is not clear cut where I am 100% going to be ready to play or there is a 0% chance that I can play. That is the situation. I would say it’s probably more unlikely that I’m not able to play singles right now. I’m also f****** doing rehab 24/7 to try to give myself that opportunity to play there again.”
Murray added: “Maybe it’s my ego getting in the way but I feel that I deserve the opportunity to give it until the very last moment to make that decision. If I was to be playing on Monday, I may know on Sunday there’s no chance that I can play. it’s not going to recover overnight from where it is enough to allow me to play.
“So a decision to play singles, I may be able to make that on Sunday or whatever. But also if it is progressing…I’m on the court yesterday and I’m able to go on the court and move around more today and start to do more sort of tennis movements and stuff.
“I’m not necessarily going to know how that’s going to change over the next 48 to 72 hours. If I’m not able to play singles, I don’t know exactly when the first round doubles matches start, but there’s a difference with how I’m recovering to play on a Monday as opposed to playing on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday. The rate that I’m improving just know, if that was to continue then an extra 72 to 96 hours makes a huge difference. It’s complicated, and it’s made more complicated because I want to play at Wimbledon one more time.”
Murray confirmed he had planned to retire after the Paris Olympics next month.
“All of the discussions and conversations that I’ve had with my team are that I’m not going to play past this summer,” he added.
“Obviously I’ve had the conversation with my family. and I have a family holiday booked the week after the Olympics. I’m not planning on going over to New York. But then I also don’t want the last time that I played on a tennis court to be what happened at Queen’s either, and again I know that there’s more important things in the world than how I finish playing my last tennis match or where I finished playing my last tennis match.
“But because of what I put into the sport over the last however many years, I would at least like to go out playing a proper match where I’m at least competitive, not what happened at Queen’s. So I can’t say for sure that if I wasn’t able to play at Wimbledon, and I didn’t recover in time to play at the Olympics that I wouldn’t consider trying to play another tournament somewhere. But if I’m able to play at Wimbledon and if I’m able to play at the Olympics, that’s most likely going to be it, yeah.”
The former world No.1 also opened up on the decision to undergo surgery just nine days before his final home Grand Slam.
“I was told I had to have the surgery immediately by multiple surgeons because of the nature of the problem,” he revealed.
“I had a pretty decent sized cyst on my spinal cord which had been seen on a scan post-French Open, but it was pretty small and it grew significantly in size over the next two to three weeks.
“Although the surgery is not a major surgery, the problem was a serious problem because if the cyst continues to grow – obviously at Queen’s I basically lost the strength, coordination and everything in my right leg on my way to the court – you’re likely to have other complications as well.
“Obviously I couldn’t risk that or allow that to happen because I was struggling to to walk properly because my nerves were getting really compressed. So I had to have the operation, but I was also given multiple different timelines for how long that would take.
“And also was made aware that if I decided to try to play Wimbledon that there’s some risk associated with that and it’s whether or not I’m willing to take on that risk. But also even with there potentially being a risk, I’ve obviously had the operation, the operation has gone really, really well and I’m recovering really well.
“I hit some balls yesterday. I’m not in much pain at all, but the nature of nerve injuries is that they’re quite slow to recover. I don’t know exactly how long it’s gonna take for the nerve to get to a stage where I’m able to compete or play, whether that’s three days or whether it’s three weeks or five weeks. It’s impossible to say.
“And I guess I’m in a pretty difficult position because I’m recovering really well each day, I’m progressing really well, but I don’t know how I’m gonna wake up tomorrow and how quickly my nerve is going to recover because it’s not the same as injuring a muscle or tearing a muscle. Everyone’s going to be a little bit different in this respect, so it’s really hard to say.”