By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday January 18, 2020
Andy Murray’s health is once again becoming a big issue as the three-time has announced that he will need to pull out of scheduled events in Montpellier and Rotterdam in February due to the bone bruise in his pelvis that prematurely ended his 2019 campaign.
“The bone bruising is taking longer to heal than first thought, so I won’t be playing in Montpellier or Rotterdam in February,” Murray said in a statement. “I don’t want to rush anything or put a timeline on my recovery. I’m going to listen to my body and step back on the court to compete when the time is right.”
Murray’s brilliant return to tennis in 2019 was cut short by the pelvis injury, which he suffered in Madrid at the Davis Cup. At the time it was not considered to be a serious setback but it has proved difficult for the 32-year-old. Many thought he had cleared his biggest hurdle after he returned from his second hip surgery in the summer of 2019 and later claimed an emotional title at Antwerp in October.
It has been a roller coaster ride for Murray, since he came within a whisker of retiring after last year’s Australian Open. Murray later underwent a second resurfacing injury to his hip and gradually worked himself back to pain free status. He began his second comeback at Cincinnati last August.
His latest setback has caused some worry in the local press that the issue may be related to the second hip surgery and that the long-term future of Murray may again be in jeopardy.
“The suspicion is that it could be a case of the implant causing impingement or banging on the bone or just not moving smoothly within his pelvis,” said Simon Briggs of the Telegraph on the Tennis Podcast, adding: “You wonder if it might turn out that that resurfaced hip is going to be more suited to what we might call civilian life than playing singles tennis. And could it be that the swing in the right direction in his fortunes that we saw in Antwerp and the joy that we saw him express in October and November might cruelly be followed by another disastrous setback?”