Demon gutted to miss AO

“The risks of me playing, which I wanted to, were that it could get worse and get to a grade-three tear and that involves stitches and is probably a problem for the rest of your career,” he said.

“So even though it killed me, this is the right decision and now I’ve just got to look at what’s ahead.

“Pretty much everyone around me told me I should not play and I was still planning on going out there and, if need be, serving underarm or at 120km/h or do whatever I can. I just did not want to miss playing here.

“But the long-term risks if it got worse (were too great).

“Me, knowing the competitive spirit I have, in an important moment of a match if (I) had pushed my body to serve a bit more in an important point, it could mean instead of four weeks, maybe a couple of months.

“So it was the smart decision and the right decision.”

De Minaur suffered the injury when beating Canadian Denis Shapovalov in the ATP Cup in Brisbane.

De Minaur missed a sizeable chunk of last season with a similar problem.

The timing of his latest injury has left the baseliner distraught.

“It’s not great ... I’m not going to lie,” he said.

“Obviously it’s a week on the calendar that I really look forward to and put in all the hard work for, so it’s pretty devastating to miss out on my home slam.

“I wanted to go out there and play even though I’ve got a 4cm grade-two tear.

“Getting out of bed hurt, everyday activity hurt, so I was being optimistic but it wasn’t going to be the case.

“I’m planning to hopefully be back in four weeks.”