Andy Murray must copy Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal or he will look WEAK - Mats Wilander
ANDY MURRAY has been told not come back to tennis until he loses the limp he has developed with his current hip injury.
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Murray this morning confirmed that he will not recover in time for the Australian Open on January 15 and has flown back to the UK to assess his options.
The Brit, who has not played competitively since July when he was beaten in the quarter-final of Wimbledon, is considering surgery to remedy the issue which first arose during the 2017 French Open.
He had hoped to complete his rehabilitation by playing in this week’s Brisbane International and even flew to Australia despite limping badly through an exhibition set against Roberto Bautista Agut in Abu Dhabi last week.
And now Mats Wilander, a seven-time Grand Slam champion, has warned Murray that coming back to the court fully fit but still limping will be a psychological disadvantage.
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“My advice would be to not return until you at least can walk the way you used to walk and not have a limp because that would make it much harder,” Wilander said.
“A player would look at how you look on the court and that would give them a lot of confidence to play against him.”
And Wilander also thinks whether Murray goes under the knife or not, he must do what Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer did and take his time coming back to the sport, even though he has already spent six months on the sidelines.
“You could clearly tell when he played in Abu Dhabi and in his own exhibition back in Glasgow, if you have that much of a limp when you walk, you’re obviously very hindered when you run,” Wilander added.
“My advice would be to step away, get yourself healthy and take a page out to of Federer and Nadal’s book.
“He’s too good a player to worry about loss of confidence or loss of skill. It’s just a matter of getting physically healthy and I’m sure if the drive is there he will be back to where he would like to be.
“Rushing into it is most probably a bad idea. That would be my advice.
“But it’s obviously really difficult to say when you’re 30 years old and you’re dying to get back out on the court.”
***Mats Wilander will be commentating at the Australian Open for Eurosport. Watch all of the action from Melbourne live on Eurosport and Eurosport Player from Monday January 15.***
