I’ll be back British No1 targets Wimbledon return after hip surgery to save his career
Wimbledon target after operation in Australia Scot to focus on winning major events in future
Andy Murray underwent hip surgery yesterday in Australia, and believes that he should be able to resume his tennis career in time for Wimbledon.
In a conference call yesterday, Murray explained that he had reached the decision to have an op- eration last Wednesday night, soon after realising that he was not ready to play in the Brisbane International despite almost six months of rest and rehabilitation. “The reason for having it done was to allow me to get back competing,” Murray said. “Because that’s what I want to keep doing and I’m not finished playing tennis yet.”
Early reports on the operation’s progress were positive. “I’m very optimistic,” Murray said. “The surgeon was very happy about how it went. He felt that my hip will be feeling better than it did a year ago. Obviously, I was still doing fine a year ago. I was ranked No1 in the world a year ago.”
Yet Murray emphasised that he would not be chasing rankings points with his old intensity when he returns to tour. “I’m not going to be putting in the same amount of tournaments and effort to try to get to No1 in the world,” Murray explained. “I’ll be focusing more on trying to win major events and big tournaments rather than trying to achieve certain ranking goals.”
Instead of returning to England last Thursday, as his Instagram post suggested at the time, Murray opted to fly to Melbourne and stay there incognito. He had decided to engage the services of Dr John O’donnell, a man he describes as “one of the most experienced hip surgeons in the world”.
It now emerges that Murray has been in touch with O’donnell since 2008, when his right hip first started to bother him. The two men have met six or seven times in Melbourne since, usually in the wake of the Australian Open. “I’ve known him since I was 20, 21 years old,” Murray said, “and I decided he was the right person to do it.”
Although troublesome, the hip did not become a major concern until early June, when Murray found himself unable to walk without pain after a lengthy French Open semi-final against Stan Wawrinka.
Since then, he has followed the advice of doctors by attempting the conservative route back to fitness, which involved rehabilitation rather than surgery. But after the Brisbane failure, he felt that the time had come for a more aggressive approach.
“I was nervous this morning,” Murray said, “but it was the right decision to make. At Wimbledon basically everything was hurting. I had never been in pain like that before. It’s got better but still it’s extremely tiring mentally when you are feeling your hip from the first minute that you wake up in the day and start walking, to when you lie down at night.
“I’m happy that I’m going to be out of that pain now. To get back playing, the advice I’ve been given is 12 to 14 weeks. But I’m going to take as long as I need to take before I get back on the court. Most likely that will be around the grass-court season, maybe slightly before.
“I want to come back when I’m fit and ready to play, not to get into a situation like in Brisbane or New York, where I’m unsure when I turn up at a tournament how fit I am.”
Murray did not explain the details of the condition he has been suffering from, but he did say that O’donnell had taken a light-touch approach to the surgery. A complete clear-out of the joint would probably have ended his sporting career, so the intention is to muddle through a few more years on the tour and then to have a full hip replacement after he retires.
“I’ve been fairly competitive with top 50 players in the world in Brisbane when I’m struggling to move,” said Murray. “And I made the quarter-finals at Wimbledon when I literally couldn’t walk and was in so much pain. So if I can get myself to 95 per cent of my best I believe that’s enough to compete at the highest level.”
While explaining his latest procedure, which began at 7.30am Melbourne time, Murray revealed for the first time that he had also undergone another bout of surgery – though a far more minor one – on Dec 18. This was a kind of hernia operation, designed to clear up a condition widely known as Sportsman’s Groin. Modern treatments are so effective that he was only off the practice court for four or five days. The detail explains why Murray opted to leave his training block in Miami a few days early.
As for the motivation that has kept Murray plugging on through week after dreary week of rehab, he explained that he wanted his elder daughter – Sophia, who will soon celebrate her second birthday – to be able to watch him play. “I had spoken to my wife a little bit about it,” he said. “One of the things that I would like to do is play until my eldest daughter is able to watch me and have a small understanding of what it is I’ve done for my living. “That would be cool if she can come along and watch me hit some balls or practice. I like seeing a lot of the other kids when they are on the tour with their parents.”