Andy Murray remains hopeful of playing at Wimbledon – but he admits it is unlikely to be in singles.
The 37-year-old, who confirmed he is planning for the Olympics in Paris to be the final event of his career, had surgery on a spinal cyst on Saturday.
Murray called it a day after only five games against Jordan Thompson at Queen’s Club last week, after experiencing weakness in his right leg.
The draw for the singles is on Friday morning, with matches starting on Monday, and Murray is happy to give himself as much time as he can to make the decision.
“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,” he said.
“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 going to 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.”
He is also entered into the doubles with brother Jamie for the first time, and that currently appears the most likely avenue for him to make a final appearance at Wimbledon.
“I would say it’s probably more likely that I’m not able to play singles right now,” he said.
“I spoke to my brother a couple of days ago in terms of the doubles to see if he wants to find someone else to play with, and I was obviously absolutely fine with that.
“But he also wants the opportunity to try to play. We’ll see how the next few days go.
“I certainly couldn’t be preparing for Wimbledon in a worse way. But maybe this is just how it was meant to happen for me.”
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Murray added he was made aware there is some “risk associated” with trying to play at Wimbledon, and he’s weighing up whether or not he is “willing to take on that risk”.
He had a “pretty decent-sized cyst”, he explained, which had been spotted in a scan after the French Open but “grew significantly” over the following two or 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,” he said.
“Obviously I couldn’t risk that because I was struggling 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.”
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Olympic entries will be confirmed next week, with Murray hoping to play singles and doubles with Dan Evans.
But there is also an injury doubt around Evans, who suffered a knee injury after slipping and falling at Queen’s.
Should Murray not make the Olympics, he revealed he could yet play another event, such as the US Open, in order to bow out on his own terms.
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