Andy Murray has been ruled out of this year’s Wimbledon, the ATP Tour have confirmed.
The 37-year-old Brit, a two-time champion at SW19, was forced to retire injured during the first set of his second-round contest with Jordan Thompson at Queen’s Club on Wednesday.
Murray complained of numbness in his right leg after withdrawing from the tournament and subsequent scans determined that the veteran Scot required surgery on his back.
It comes after Murray hinted he would likely bring his illustrious 20-year career in tennis to an end following this summer’s Wimbledon – which begins on July 1 – and the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, starting on July 26.
The three-time Grand Slam winner has struggled with ankle and back problems throughout the latter stages of his career and underwent major hip surgery in early 2019 in a bid to prolong his playing days.
‘After an operation on a spinal cyst, Andy Murray is sadly out of Wimbledon,’ a statement on the ATP Tour’s social media pages read this afternoon.
‘Rest up and recover Andy, we’ll miss seeing you there.’
After pulling out of Queen’s earlier this week, Murray said it became immediately apparent during his pre-match warm-up that his right leg ‘was not working properly’.
‘During my pre-match warm-up I was pretty uncomfortable and then I walked up the stairs, just before going out on the court, I didn’t have the normal strength in my right leg. It was not a usual feeling,’ he told reporters.
‘The the first two balls I hit in the warm-up, my right leg, it was like so uncoordinated. I had no coordination.
‘Then yeah, my right leg just was not working properly. In hindsight I wish I hadn’t gone on there because it was pretty awkward for everyone.
‘There is nothing I could do and then there is a part of you that wants to go out there and see if it gets better and maybe feel better with a bit of treatment or something, but that wasn’t the case.’
More to follow.
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