Ankle injury leaves Andy Murray in race to rescue his Wimbledon farewell

Andy Murray faces a race to be fit for Wimbledon and his final grasscourt season after suffering a serious ankle injury at the Miami Open.

Murray turned his ankle in the latter stages of a third-round defeat by Tomas Machac on Sunday and continued playing, seemingly untroubled by the injury.

But, following a scan, the Briton revealed he had suffered a full rupture of his anterior talofibular ligament and a near full thickness rupture of his calcaneofibular ligament.

Murray was set to see an ankle specialist on his return to the UK this week to determine his steps to recovery, which is expected to take anything from six to 12 weeks.

The 36-year-old has declared a desire to play the French Open and a full grasscourt calendar, including Wimbledon, where he is a two-time champion, with the Olympics acting as a possible swansong to his illustrious career. He has already made it clear he does not seem himself playing much beyond this summer.

Announcing the news on social media last night, he wrote: “Yesterday, towards the end of my match in Miami, I suffered a full rupture of my ATFL and near full thickness rupture of my CFL.

“I will see an ankle specialist when I return home to determine next steps. Goes without saying this is a tough one to take and I’ll be out for an extended period. But I’ll be back with one hip and no ankle ligaments when the time is right.”

Murray had endured a tough start to 2024, struggling for results, but looked to have turned a corner in Miami, coming within a whisker of reaching the last 16 having picked up two good wins. They were his first back-to-back victories since last summer.

Despite the latest setback, the three-time Grand Slam champion remains adamant he plans to play on for what are the final months of an illustrious career.

Eighteen-time Grand Slam singles champion Martina Navratilova was among Murray’s wellwishers on social media, saying: “Yikes. Fingers crossed for Andy!”

Should he be on the swift end of the recovery timeframe, the world No62 could yet take his place in the main draw of the French Open on May 26.

His grasscourt campaign potentially begins in Surbiton on June 2, with the Cinch Championships at Queen’s

Club, his traditional final Wimbledon warm-up, on June 17 and Wimbledon itself beginning the first week of July.

Murray has hinted the Olympic Games, should he qualify, will likely mark the end of his career, thereby ruling out the US Open. But his injury may yet change his retirement plans.

While in Miami, the two-time Olympic singles champion had made it clear he would only play at Paris 2024 if he felt he had a chance of winning a medal, meaning the doubles is the likeliest path he would take. He also said he would not take a place from a fellow British player unless he felt he would be the more competitive.

He told The Times prior to his injury: “I would love the chance to play in another Olympics, but also genuinely only if I felt like there was a chance of winning a medal.

“I’m also very conscious that because of how amazing my experiences at the Olympics have been, I would want to be there by right and not just to take one of the other guys’ spots, because it is a brilliant opportunity.

“We have top doubles players and also Jack [Draper], Cam [Norrie] and Evo [Dan Evans] in singles as well. I don’t want to be in a position where I’m getting selected to play there just because it might be the last tournament that I play. That’s

why there is a bit of uncertainty about the summer.”