Andy Murray announces his 'complicated' plan to retire after the Olympics, at 37, as he vows to 'f***ing do rehab 24/7' to make it to Wimbledon next week but will struggle to play in singles

Andy Murray admits it is 'more likely that I'm not able to play singles’ at Wimbledon, but vowed that he is ‘f****** doing rehab 24/7 to try to give myself that opportunity to play there again’ one last time.

The 37-year-old has opened up about his operation to remove a spinal cyst, his battle to play for the last time at Wimbledon and his plans for retirement.

The draw for the Championships takes place on Friday but Murray would not play his first match until the Monday or Tuesday and said: ‘I deserve the opportunity to give it until the very last moment to make that decision.’ If he is not fit for singles he would aim to play doubles with brother Jamie.

He confirmed that his plan is to retire from tennis after the Olympics next month – saying he has ‘a family holiday booked the week after’ – but may consider a different exit strategy if he is unable to play at either Wimbledon or Paris. 

Murray pulled out of his second-round match at Queen’s after nerve pain caused by the cyst immobilised his right leg. And on Saturday he had a minor operation to remove the cyst.

‘Obviously the last week's been pretty tough,’ he said, speaking for the first time since Queen’s. ‘When I had the injury at Queen's and then had the subsequent scans and doctor's appointments, it was a pretty difficult situation to be in. I was told I had to have the surgery immediately by multiple surgeons.

‘I had a pretty decent sized cyst on my spinal cord which had been seen on a scan post French Open, but it grew significantly in size over the next two to three weeks.

‘So I had to have the operation, but I was given multiple different timelines for how long that would take. And also was made aware that if I decided to try to play Wimbledon that there's some risk associated with that and it's whether or not I'm willing to take on that risk.

‘But also even with there potentially being a risk, the operation has gone really, really well and I'm recovering really well. I hit some balls yesterday. I'm not in much pain at all, but the nature of nerve injuries is that they're quite slow to recover.

‘I don't know exactly how long it's going take for the nerve to get to a stage where I'm able to compete, whether that's three days or whether it's three weeks or five weeks. It's impossible to say.

‘I'm in a pretty difficult position because I'm recovering really well each day, I'm progressing really well, but I don't know how I'm going to wake up tomorrow and how quickly my nerve is going to recover because it's not the same as injuring a muscle or tearing a muscle.’

The surgery has thrown a wrench into his retirement plans, and Murray talked candidly about where this leaves him in that regard.

‘All of the discussions and conversations I've had with my team are that I'm not going to play past this summer,’ he said. ‘Obviously I've had the conversation with my family, I have a family holiday booked the week after the Olympics.

‘I'm not planning on going over to New York (for the US Open). But then I also don't want the last time I played on a tennis court to be what happened at Queen's either.

‘I know there's more important things in the world than how or where I play my last tennis match but because of what I put into the sport over the last however many years, I would at least like to go out playing a proper match where I'm at least competitive, not what happened at Queen's.

‘So I can't say for sure that if I wasn't able to play at Wimbledon, and I didn't recover in time to play at the Olympics, that I wouldn't consider trying to play another tournament somewhere. But if I'm able to play at Wimbledon and if I'm able to play at the Olympics, that's most likely going to be it, yeah.’

Asked when he will make a final decision on playing at Wimbledon, he replied: ‘That's the thing that's hard. Maybe it's my ego getting in the way but I feel that I deserve the opportunity to give it until the very last moment to make that decision.

‘If I'm not able to play singles, I don't know exactly when the first round doubles matches start, but there's a difference with how I'm recovering to play on a Monday as opposed to playing on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday… an extra 72 to 96 hours makes a huge difference.

‘It's complicated, and it's made more complicated because I want to play at Wimbledon one more time.

‘I spoke to my brother about that a couple of days ago in terms of the doubles to see if he wants to find someone else to play with, and I was absolutely fine with that. But he also wants the opportunity to try to play. We'll see how the next few days go.

‘If there was no chance of me being able to play Wimbledon - which I thought was going to be the case a week ago when I'd had my initial consultations and stuff, I was told that this was going to be six to 12 weeks - I wouldn't be sitting here today just waiting until the last minute to have my name in the draw.

‘It has been mentioned to me, are you going to withdraw before the draw at 10am on Friday? And I'm like, Well, no, I'm not. I'm going to wait until the last minute to see if I'm going to be able to and I've earned that right to do that. 

'This is not clear cut where I am 100 per cent going to be ready to play or there is a zero per cent chance that I can play. I would say it's probably more likely that I'm not able to play singles right now. I'm also f***ing doing rehab 24/7 to try to give myself that opportunity to play there again.

‘But also maybe this is the way it's meant to happen for me. I wish I was able to go into Wimbledon this year with a proper grass season under my belt and well prepared and ready to go. 

'I certainly couldn't be preparing for Wimbledon in a worse way. But maybe this is just how it was meant to happen for me. Getting to play with Jamie in the doubles is something that obviously I have never done before. 

'That can be special as well. But yeah it's been a tough, tough couple of weeks. And I just hope that these next few days go well and keep progressing and I get the opportunity to play there again.’