CINCH CHAMPIONSHIPS

June 19, 2024

Andy Murray

Queens Club

Press Conference

J. THOMPSON/A. Murray

4-1 [Ret.]

THE MODERATOR: Andy, do you have an update that you could give us about the injury today?

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, obviously it wasn't great. I have been struggling with my back for a while. Then, yeah, I had loss of power in my right leg. So loss of motor control, had no coordination. Yeah, couldn't move.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. You seemed to be less pleased with the win than we expected last night, and I wondered if that could be you were feeling more pain than normal. Was there a problem last night, or did it really come on today?

ANDY MURRAY: I was pretty happy with the win yesterday. Yeah, my back's been a problem for quite a while, and it's been sore in the buildup to the tournament. It was pretty sore in my match yesterday. Yeah, it was sore through today. But I was able to manage it. I wasn't comfortable playing, but I was able to manage it.

Yeah, like, during my prematch warmup, you know, I was pretty uncomfortable, and then I walked up the stairs to go to, just before going on the court, I didn't have, like, the usual just normal strength in my right leg. It was not a usual feeling.

Then, yeah, I don't know how many of you were watching, but the first two balls I hit in the warmup, my right leg, it was complete, like, so uncoordinated. I had no coordination. Then, yeah, I wasn't able to, yeah, right leg just was not working properly.

Q. Do you know where this leaves you going forward?

ANDY MURRAY: Well, no, not entirely, because I have not seen a specialist. I haven't had, you know, scans, et cetera. The sort of treatment I had on my back after the French Open was, you know, predominantly kind of left-sided. This was my right leg.

Yeah, you know, I have dealt with back issues for a long time, for the last ten years or so, and it's probably quite common for a lot of players. But I have never had that loss of, I don't know, loss of coordination, loss of control, strength in the leg before.

Q. It's the first time I think you have retired mid-match for 11 years, I think. I mean, you obviously were trying to carry on. Did it get to the point where you were told you shouldn't or couldn't, or did you make that decision that you couldn't?

ANDY MURRAY: Well, the thing was I was in similar discomfort yesterday before I went on to play my match, and then as I was playing the match, you know, the discomfort in my back was, yeah, it was manageable, and my back didn't feel too dissimilar to yesterday. It was probably slightly worse.

Yeah, if I had felt that when I was practicing before the match, there is no way I would have played. But, you know, whatever happened from when I was doing my prematch warmup, you know, to going on the match court, yeah, you know, I wish I hadn't gone on the court, to be honest.

But I didn't really realize until I was kind of walking of, you know, to go on the court. Yeah, in hindsight I wish I hadn't gone on there, because it was pretty awkward for everyone. Yeah, there is nothing I could do, and then there is part of you that wants to go out there and see if it gets better, you know, and maybe feel better with a bit of treatment or something, but that wasn't the case.

Q. Can you say right now, are you worried about Wimbledon? Can you say what your chances are of playing there?

ANDY MURRAY: I wouldn't know. I mean, like I said, I didn't necessarily get my right side of my back sort of treated, you know, after the French Open, because, you know, I have sort of, like all tennis players, we have degenerative sort of joints and stuff in the back, but it's all predominantly been left-sided for me for pretty much, you know, my whole career. I have never had too many issues with the right side.

So maybe there is something that, you know, can be done between now and then, you know, to help the right side. I will get scans tomorrow and get it rechecked and see if there's anything that can be done.

Q. (Question off microphone.)

ANDY MURRAY: I don't know exactly what it will be, because I don't know exactly what the problem is. I just know that this is not something -- I hadn't experienced that before. You know, I have had, like I said, dealing with the back pain today, yesterday, and for the last 10, 11 years of my career, but I have never experienced that before.

So, you know, I don't know what the procedure will be or what to expect, really.

Q. With the pain and the discomfort, does it feel like back spasm? Does it feel like sciatic pain going down your right leg?

ANDY MURRAY: No, it's not a back spasm. I have neural pain across my lower back. It's a nerve-type sort of discomfort.

When I had the operation on my back in 2013, I was getting quite a lot of sort of, you know, pain that would sort of start in my lower back and shoot down my leg, often get like a pins-and-needles kind of feeling in my foot. But I never lost strength or anything like that when I was playing.

This, I've just had this neural pain across my back, like I said, for the past few weeks. You know, it's been pretty uncomfortable. And then, yeah, today it was like, yeah, like just a numbness and loss of strength, power, control.

But the actual pain is all in my lower back. I haven't had it shooting down my leg or anything like that. Yeah.

Q. Despite the obvious difficulties, it seems like over the past few years you have been able to manage your body pretty well, but obviously in the last few months, it's been from March and Miami Open and then here, it's been a lot of difficulties. How difficult and disappointing has this been to kind of have an injury and then rehab and then have another one here?

ANDY MURRAY: Yeah, I mean, this doesn't feel like a new injury that's happened today. This is something that's obviously been ongoing and it's got, you know, progressively worse.

Yeah, the injury in Miami was really unfortunate, because, you know, I had been starting to play quite well. I was in the middle of a really, really good match, which I had a great chance of winning.

Yeah, that was unfortunate. And although the last few years might have seemed okay, it's been hard, it's been really hard on the body. You know, physically it's been, yeah, been tough. A lot of days where, yeah, it's not been that much fun to train and practice and everything.

But, yeah, obviously I have tried to work through it and, you know, find ways to get on the court and compete at this level. But tennis is a really, really hard sport. Obviously, as you start to age, your body has got a lot of wear and tear in it. You have seen it with Rafa. Novak's obviously unfortunately had the injury recently. Roger, you know, the way that his career finished and some of the problems he had in the latter stages of his career, when you start to play lots and lots of matches, that's hard. But there is a lot of work that goes into being ready to play, you know, and compete at this level. So it's not easy.