Andy Murray offers Wimbledon injury update: “The plan is still to play, next couple of days are important”

Andy Murray says the next couple of days will be crucial to his hopes of being fully fit for Wimbledon, which begins on Monday.

The two-time champion, who is sitting just outside the world’s top 50 after some encouraging performances of late, has been unable to serve at 100 percent because of the abdominal injury he suffered in the final in Stuttgart against Matteo Berrettini just over a week ago.

“The next couple of days are pretty important for me,” Murray told British media on Monday evening. “Obviously the plan is still to play. The injury that I had is improving. I’ve had it rescanned since then and it’s progressing in the right way.

“But you can probably work out from the nature of the injury which shots it is that I’ve been struggling with and haven’t been able to practise. In the next few days, I’ll start to increase that and test it out. And hopefully it’s recovered sufficiently.”

Having missed last week’s Cinch Championships at London’s Queen’s Club because of the injury, Murray will not play in this week’s exhibition event at Hurlingham, choosing instead, to practice.

Murray: I’ve dealt with worse in the last few years”

Murray said he’d been able to work on the rest of his game but admitted that not being able to go full throttle so close to Wimbledon was hardly ideal preparation.

“It’s frustrating because my game was obviously in a good place physically,” he said. “I was feeling good. Everyone that I trust and respect in terms of their opinions on my game and my movement were very happy with how that side of things was going and progressing.

Murray said he had not done himself any further injury by playing on in Stuttgart after feeling the pain, and said his recent workload had taken its toll.

“t’s frustrating but I played nine matches in two weeks,” he said. “I haven’t done that since 2016. Six years since I last was able to do that. That’s my fault because my performances haven’t been consistent enough. In some respects, it’s understandable because I was playing a high level. In the end, I think it was like nine matches in 12 days, which is significant and just unfortunately, picked up this injury.

“Yeah, it’s frustrating because my game was obviously in a good place physically. I was feeling good. I felt like I was moving. Everyone that I trust and respect in terms of their opinions on my game and my movement were very happy with how that side of things was going and progressing.

“So yeah, it’s frustrating to be in this position in the build-up to Wimbledon, but I’ve been in worse situations in recent years. The positive for me is that: that I’ve dealt with certainly worse issues in the last few years and handled them OK.”

Murray will be unseeded at Wimbledon. Defending champion Novak Djokovic will be No 1, while Rafael Nadal will be the No 2 seed, as he chases the third leg of the calendar-year Grand Slam.

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