Wimbledon is back for 2024 and many tennis fans want to know if Andy Murray will play at the Championships this year after his new back injury.
Murray played at Wimbledon last year, narrowly crashing out in the second round to fifth-seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in an epic five-set battle.
But the 37-year-old two-time Wimbledon champion is nearing retirement and picked up a concerning injury problem at Queen’s Club last week.
Murray subsequently required an operation on a spinal cyst in his back. So the question on everybody’s lips is: Will he play at Wimbledon 2024?
What did Andy Murray say on Thursday?
‘The rate that I’m improving just now, if that was to continue then an extra 72 to 96 hours makes a huge difference,’ Andy Murray said on Thursday. ‘It’s complicated, and it’s made more complicated because I want to play at Wimbledon one more time.
‘I want to have that opportunity to play the tournament and I know that some people might look at that and say, withdrawing from a tournament late at the last minute or something like that isn’t the right thing to do, even though it happens every single week on the Tour.
‘The winner of Queen’s will pull out of Eastbourne when the draw has been done and is clearly totally fit. But I feel like I deserve the opportunity to try to play there again. And I want to have that opportunity, so I’m going to give it as long as I can to see how well I recover.
‘It has been mentioned to me, ‘Are you going to withdraw before the draw at 10am on Friday?’ And I’m like, Well, no, I’m not. I’m going to wait until the last minute to see if I’m going to be able to and I’ve earned that right to do that.
‘This is not clear cut where I am 100 per cent going to be ready to play or there is a 0 per cent chance that I can play. That is the situation. I would say it’s probably more likely that I’m not able to play singles right now. I’m also f****** doing rehab 24/7 to try to give myself that opportunity to play there again.
‘I know that there’s more important things in the world than how I finish playing my last tennis match or where I finished playing my last tennis match. But because of what I put into the sport over the last however many years, I would at least like to go out playing a proper match where I’m at least competitive, not what happened at Queen’s.
‘So I can’t say for sure that if I wasn’t able to play at Wimbledon, and I didn’t recover in time to play at the Olympics that I wouldn’t consider trying to play another tournament somewhere. But if I’m able to play at Wimbledon and if I’m able to play at the Olympics, that’s most likely going to be it.’
Is Andy Murray playing at Wimbledon in 2024?
Andy Murray’s management team also provided a key update on Thursday ahead of the first-round draw being made on Friday.
‘Andy is recovering well from his surgery and has started training again,’ they said.
‘At this stage it is too soon to confirm for definite whether he will play Wimbledon, but he is working towards that and a final decision will be made as late as possible to give him the best chance of competing.’
Murray had originally confirmed that he was set to play Wimbledon this year – possibly for the final time ever – but that came before the back injury at Queen’s Club on June 19, which forced him to retire mid-match against Jordan Thompson.
Murray required surgery on a spinal cyst in his back following that match and the ATP Tour subsequently said that the British hero would miss Wimbledon following a report in The Telegraph that he would be ruled out for six weeks.
But it later emerged that Murray was not ruled out of Wimbledon after his own mother rubbished the reports, while his team were forced to put out a statement.
‘Following his surgery on Saturday, Andy is continuing to work with his medical team to confirm when he will return to the court,’ the statement read.
‘At this stage, no decisions have been made and we will update further as soon as anything has been finalised.’
Murray’s team are believed to be incredibly frustrated about the media leaks, which were dismissed by Great Britain Davis Cup captain Leon Smith.
‘I have seen the stories on social media and that is not my understanding,’ Smith told the BBC. ‘This has come from one source and it has a knock-on effect with everyone reporting on it. He obviously went through a procedure and we will have to wait and see now.
‘My understanding is that no decision has been made. Let’s hope for the best for Andy.’
Murray has been very open about his plans for retirement and was plotting to play the Championships for the last time before hanging up his racket.
He is due to feature not only in the men’s singles but in the men’s doubles after teaming up with his brother Jamie – but his participation is now massively up in the air for both – and according to iNews he may decide to only play in doubles.