There could be good news and bad news for Andy Murray if he does require surgery on the serious ankle injury he suffered at the Miami Open, according to physiotherapist Mark Leather.
Three-time Grand Slam winner Murray twisted his ankle during the latter stages of his match against Tomas Machac on Sunday and required treatment from the ATP physio.
Despite being in obvious pain, he continued to play and eventually went down 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (7-5).
A few hours after the match he gave an update and confirmed that he ruptured his ankle ligaments and will need to see an ankle specialist before determining the next steps, although he conceded he would likely be “out for an extended period”.
And that “extended period” could be anything between three and four months if he needs an operation.
According to Leather, Murray will likely require surgery but the good news is the operation has a “very high” success rate.
“A lot of this will depend on the MRI scan or stress X-ray to see if there are any adverse movements around the ankle but once the surgeon has a look at the two diagnostic tools and examines the patient with their own hands, the decision will be made to potentially treat it with non-surgery but that’s unlikely I think,” he told Sky Sports News.
“If it is surgery, the success rates are very high and I imagine someone with his previous strength and mental strength will be back between three and four months. It’s not a difficult procedure on a level playing field.”
If Murray does indeed undergo surgery with a three to four-month recovery period, he will miss the entire clay-court season and will be touch and go for Wimbledon, which gets underway July 1.
Former British No 1 Annabel Croft says the injury could not have come at a worse time for Murray as he just started to regain form following a difficult few months.
Adding further salt to the wound, Murray had also confirmed that he is likely to retire later this year.
“It’s absolutely devastating for Andy Murray because he’s had a difficult season and he admitted that,” she told Sky Sports’ Gigi Salmon.
“But things were really starting to fire up for him here in Miami. He had that fantastic win against [Matteo] Berrettini, then he beat [Tomas Martin] Etcheverry, who he lost to earlier this year, and then against [Tomas] Machac in the round where he damaged his ankle.
“It was an epic match and he was so close to potentially coming to that match and just towards the back-end of it he just ruptured his tendons. He’s had it looked at and he’s going to have more specialists looking at it, but it’s just devastating.
“He’s already announced that he may not potentially play past the summer so this is just a massive, massive setback. He doesn’t know when he’s going to come back but it’s going to be tough, and as he said himself a bit tongue in cheek, if he does come back it’ll be with one hip and not much of a tendon left.”
