Andy Murray makes confession about ‘complicated’ Wimbledon decision as he also confirms retirement event

Andy Murray has admitted that he is caught between a rock and a hard place about whether or not to play at Wimbledon as he will risk further injury if he does play.

Having already announced that he would retire during the summer, Wimbledon 2024 was set to be his last appearance at the All England Club.

However, the two-time champion’s participation was thrown in doubt when he pulled up injured during his Queen’s Club second-round match against Jordan Thompson.

The injury proved to be a lot more serious than initially thought and the 37-year-old underwent surgery on a spinal cyst on Saturday and it is now very much a waiting game for the former world No 1.

With Wimbledon just a few days away, Murray revealed that he plans to retire after this year’s Olympics, which will run from July 27 to August 4 at Roland Garros, but his plans are up in the air at the moment.

“Obviously the last week’s been pretty tough,” he stated. “There’s obviously a lot going on with me planning on finishing at the Olympics.

“When I had the injury at Queen’s and then had the subsequent scans and doctor’s appointments, it was a pretty difficult situation to be in. I was told I had to have the surgery immediately by multiple surgeons because of the nature of the problem.

“I had a pretty decent-sized cyst on my spinal cord, which had been seen on a scan post French Open, but it was pretty small and it grew significantly in size over the next two to 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.

“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.

“And also was made aware that, if I decided to try to play Wimbledon, there’s some risk associated with that and it’s whether or not I’m willing to take on that risk.”

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Murray has trained on grass since undergoing surgery, but it remains to be seen if he will be fit for the Grand Slam, which starts on July 1.

He added: “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.”

Murray is due to team up with his brother Jamie in the doubles and he admitted that he might have to skip the singles.

“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.

“It’s complicated, and it’s made more complicated because I want to play at Wimbledon one more time.

“I would say it’s probably more likely that I’m not able to play singles right now.

“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.”