Andy Murray is leaning towards having another hip operation sooner rather than later to improve his quality of life and potentially extend his career.
This in the knowledge he recognises that going under the knife would risk a possible swansong at Wimbledon this summer.
After his drama-filled exit from the Australian Open, Murray said he faced a dilemma; to take four months off and just play Wimbledon, or to go for surgery now and see how well he recovers.
Murray is heading home today and plans to speak with his team and his family before making a final decision.
As he pondered his options here, he said the most likely thing was “probably to have the operation” sooner rather than later.
“If that was my last match, if I got smoked, I would have been like ‘shit, I don't want that to be the last match that I play’,” he said.
“I literally couldn't have done any more than I did, that was my maximum, my hip was completely gone, I couldn't have done any more than what I did tonight.
“It was an amazing atmosphere, it was brilliant, so that would be a nice way to finish as well. I would be able to deal with that being my last match okay I think.”
The surgery would be a resurfacing of the right hip, Murray said, an operation that Bob Bryan, the American doubles specialist, had last year and has recently returned from.
In an interview with the BBC, Murray said he still loved playing and competing, but admitted it would also be hard should he be unable to play at Wimbledon.
“If I want to play Wimbledon one last time for certain, then I take the next four to five months off and finish there and have the operation after that and stop,” he said, saying it would be too tough to wait four months in pain, have the operation after Wimbledon and then try to come back.
“It’s difficult. I always wanted to finish playing at Wimbledon. But there’s a bit of me that obviously . . . I love playing. I want to keep playing tennis but I can’t do that with the hip I have just now.
“So the only option, if I want to do that is to have the surgery, but I know that there’s a strong possibility that I won’t be able to come back and play after that.
“But it’s my only option if I want to try and play again for longer than one event, like at Wimbledon. That’s a decision I have to make and I’ll chat with my family and my team about that.”
It is 20 months since Murray’s hip began to give him real pain, after the semi-final of the French Open, when he lost in five sets to Stan Wawrinka.
Since then, he has played only a handful of matches, eventually choosing to have a relatively unobtrusive form of hip surgery this time last year.
But it was not as successful as he had hoped and he admitted this week that he is in so much pain day in, day out, that it hurts to put his socks and shoes on.
Murray showed he has lost none of his fighting spirit as he fought back from two sets down before going out in five sets to Roberto Bautista-Agut of Spain, the No 22 seed.
And the way he played may just have convinced him that, if a hip operation is successful, then there may be more to come.
Judy Murray was courtside throughout to watch her younger son on Monday night, beaming with pride at what he had managed to achieve.
And Judy said she sensed that Murray believes there may yet be a chance he could be able to play again.
“I hope that he can find the solution that’s right for him,” she said yesterday.
“I think we could see from last night how much he’s still got to give and how much he loves it and has always loved what he does.
“I don’t know what he’ll do next. He probably doesn’t know yet. And there’s no rush. He can take his time, there’s no rush to make any decisions. It all needs to be looked at and researched and weighed up.
“Whatever he decides, I’ll be right behind him because quality of life, of course, is massive and he’s got two little kids. He must enjoy life in the long term but you just get the sense that there’s something else in him, that he’s not quite ready to quit yet, so we’ll see.”
And Judy said she had been “blown away” by the response from all over the world to Murray’s announcement that he may have played his last match.
“I hope that he perhaps he finally realises how loved and respected and appreciated he is,” she said.
“And to get that kind of reception on the other side of the world, I mean, that’s just uncanny.
“It was an amazing night. I think I went from being concerned for him to just being like ‘God, this is just what you’re all about’ and it was great.”
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