Djokovic ‘concerned’ about injury, with shades of 2023 Australian Open

His victory over Carlos Alcaraz in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open was a bright spot on Tuesday, but Novak Djokovic had a major shadow cast over the rest of his tournament.

Injured in the left thigh at the end of the first set, the Serb took a medical time-out to have his leg strapped. Then the medicine kicked in little by little, allowing Novak Djokovic to move around the court without pain and give Carlos Alcaraz a hard time.

After the victory, it was time to recover, with two full days to go before Friday’s semi-final against Alexander Zverev. But the 37-year-old is also troubled by the injury, which could prevent him from playing to his full potential.

“The extra day with no match comes at a good time. Yeah, as I said on the court, I have to assess the situation tomorrow when I make up. I will try to do as much as I possibly can with my recovery team, with my physio today, tomorrow, the next few days. Probably skip training tomorrow. I’ll see if I’m going to train in two days or not. I’ll take it day by day.

“Now it’s really about recovery. I’m concerned. I am, to be honest, physically. But if I manage somehow to, yeah, be physically good enough, I think mentally, emotionally I’m as motivated as I can be.

“Yeah, this match drains both players. Almost three and a half, four hours of incredible battle, of high intensity, of course it has its toll.”

“It’s very similar to what I had a few years ago”

All the same, Djokovic has every reason to be confident for the end of the Australian Open. He already suffered a similar injury during his victorious run in Melbourne in 2023, so he knows how to deal with the situation, even though he has two more years in his legs.

“I’m not going to go into details, but it’s very similar to what I had few years ago. 2023, to be exact. I haven’t done any tests obviously.

“I mean, I’ve done tests with the physio when they took me off the court, when I had the medical timeout. He strapped me, and then the doctor gave me some medication, so forth, some painkillers. That kicked in after 20, 30 minutes. It did help. Then I had to take another dose I think in the beginning of the fourth.

“Yeah, now that it’s cooling off, I can start to feel different things. Let’s see how it goes tomorrow and day by day.”

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