Andy Murray targets Wimbledon return after undergoing successful hip surgery in Melbourne

Murray revealed that he could barely walk during Wimbledon last year and 'had never been in pain like it'

Andy Murray had hip surgery in Melbourne today and is confident that he will be back playing at Wimbledon this summer. The Scot, speaking by telephone from his hospital bed after having the operation at 7.30 this morning local time, said his surgeon was “very happy” with the outcome and had told him that he should be able to resume his career free of the pain that has dogged him since last summer.

Murray never actually left Australia after pulling out of both last week’s Brisbane International and next week’s Australian Open. Instead he flew from Brisbane to Melbourne, where he saw Dr John O’Donnell, one of the world’s leading hip specialists, who conducted the operation today. He has consulted O’Donnell regularly ever since first suffering hip trouble 10 years ago.

“I'm very optimistic,” Murray said when asked about the future, having come round from the surgery at St Vincent's Hospital in East Melbourne at 10.30 this morning. “If I can get myself to 95 per cent of my best I believe that’s enough to compete at the highest level. No question.”

Although Murray still declined to give details of the operation or the injury, he added: “The surgeon felt that my hip will be feeling better than it did a year ago. Obviously, I was still doing fine a year ago. I was ranked No 1 in the world a year ago.

“Moving forward, in terms of my approach to my career, I'm certainly not going to be putting in the same amount of tournaments and effort to try to get to No 1 in the world.

“I'll certainly be more considered in the amount of tournaments I play, even though I play a conservative schedule anyway in comparison to most of the players on the tour. I'll be focusing more on trying to win major events and big tournaments rather than trying to achieve certain ranking goals.”

Murray said he might even be back before the start of the grass-court season, though he insisted he would not be rushing back. “I’m going to take my time to make sure that the rehab is done properly, and make sure that the surgery is as successful as it can be,” he said.

“I've been quoted times for how long it's taken for players to get back from the surgery I've had and have been told it’s up to 14 weeks. But I'm going to take as long as I need to take before I get back on the court. Most likely that will be around the grass-court season, maybe slightly before.

“I'm not going to put a date on it, or a tournament, because there's no need for me to do that. I'm not interested in coming back for a specific tournament. I want to come back when I'm fit and ready to play.”

Murray has not played since limping out of Wimbledon last summer, though he tried his best to make the field for both the US Open at the end of the summer and this month’s tournaments Down Under. “At Wimbledon basically everything was hurting,” he said. “I had never been in pain like that before.”

He added: “I've been in pain walking since before Wimbledon. It's got better, but still it's extremely tiring mentally when every single time you are walking that you are feeling your hip. From the first minute that you wake up in the day and start walking to when you lie down at night, it's tiring because you're sore.

Murray played an exhibition set in Abu Dhabi which he lost in December (Getty)

“I'm happy that I’m going to be out of that pain now and that I’ll be able to just concentrate on hopefully training and playing. Obviously this is something I’m going to have to manage very smartly and very closely for the rest of my career.

“I'm aware of that and I’m certainly going to make sure I’m going to do that. I’m just looking forward to not being in pain. I've always had hip pain and that's something a lot of athletes deal with.

“There is a difference between being a little bit sore after you play a match and actually being in pain when you are running or when you are walking. That’s the tiring part. I can deal with my hip being sore after I play a five-set match but dealing with the pain in your day-to-day life just when you are walking around for four or five months at a time is different. That’s not something I wanted to continue with."

Murray said he had consulted a number of hip specialists, who had all suggested that he should first try rehabilitation rather than opt immediately for surgery. Having working tirelessly on his recovery programme, he said the hip injury had not actually stopped him from doing anything on court, but he had still been in severe pain whenever he had to extend his hip fully.

Although he admitted that he had been nervous going into the operation, he said that having the surgery was “the right decision to make”. He explained: “The reason for having it done was to allow me to get back competing and play tennis, because that’s what I want to keep doing. I’m not finished playing tennis yet.

“The rest of my body feels fantastic. I feel really, really good physically now apart from this one issue. The surgery allows me to extend my hip well, and I’ll be able to sprint."

Asked about his potential recovery, Murray said: “A lot of it is down to your determination and your work ethic and how well you rehab, how much you listen and do all the correct things. That’s what you’re told by the surgeons.

“Obviously we have to wait and see how all of that goes and how I recover. When I start playing again I won’t have played a match for 10 or 11 months. That’s a long time. But also in that period I’ve been practising a lot. It’s not like I’ve had surgery after Wimbledon and haven’t hit a ball until now. I was practising daily pretty much through to the US Open and then after having three weeks off post-US Open I’ve been hitting balls for the last three or four months.

Andy Murray's hip problem hindered his movement and ultimately cost him the match (Getty)

“Hopefully I’ll be hitting balls on the court after seven or eight weeks. It’s not like I’m going to not hit a tennis ball for eight months and then practise for two months and then start playing again. I’ve been fairly competitive with top 50 players in the world in Brisbane when I’m struggling to move and I made the quarter-finals at Wimbledon when I literally couldn’t walk and was in so much pain.”

Murray also revealed that he had had minor groin surgery before Christmas to deal with pain that he was suffering when serving. He was told that he could be back on court within a few days and was able to play a practice set in Abu Dhabi on his way to Brisbane between Christmas and the new year.

“It really helped that particular symptom that I was having,” Murray said. “So that’s really positive as well as that’s another thing I’ve been dealing with that has gone now.”

Murray said he would fly home within a week or two. Although he does not expect to attend the Australian Open, he said he might go to a players’ meeting in Melbourne next weekend.

The Scot said that one of his biggest motivations for having the surgery was the prospect of still competing at the highest level at a time when his older daughter, who will be two next month, is able to watch him play.

“I spoke to my wife a little bit about it,” he said. “One of the things that I would like to do is play until my eldest daughter is able to watch me and have a small understanding of what it is I've done for my living. That's something I really wanted to do. That's one of the things that's motivated me to keep playing.

“That was something I had spoken about before I had the problems with my hip. That would be cool if she can come along and watch me hit some balls or practice just to see what it is I do. I like watching and seeing a lot of the other kids when they are on the tour with their parents and get to do a bit of travelling with them when they're at an age when they actually understand a little bit more about what it is that they're doing.

“That was something I had spoken about before I had the problems with my hip. Obviously now I've had surgery and stuff, that's something I'm looking forward to in the future.”