Andy Murray health: ‘I was in pain all of the time’ tennis star on 10-year health battle

Andy Murray, 32, in many ways, restored hope in British tennis. His long list of achievements include winning the prestigious Grand Slam tournament and winning two Olympic gold medals. The road to victory did come at a price, however. Murray had been grappling with an ongoing hip problem, which proved too much bear. Speaking to the Express.co.uk, the grand-slam winner revealed the nature of the injury and the toll it took on his career.

The tennis champ first experienced warning signs in his early twenties, he said: “I had scans at that time which showed that I had a bit of degeneration in my hip.

“I was told at that time that if you don’t have this fixed now – an operation – you will probably have issues with degeneration later on down the line.”

Murray puts the injury down down to overuse and a slightly abnormal hip.

The Wimbledon star did not heed the advice at the time, admitting that he didn’t want to go through surgery in his twenties, a decision he partly regrets.

How did it impact his performance?

After long matches throughout most of his career, Murray would experience “aching” and “throbbing”, a condition that got progressively worse, he said.

“I didn’t have good range of motion by the end in my hip and everything around it would start to stiffen up,” Murray explained.

There was just bone rubbing against bone

Andy Murray

Eventually, the pain brought his career at the time to an abrupt end: “The hip was completely worn out. I was in pain all of the time.

“There was just bone rubbing against bone every time I moved.

“If I rested for like a week my hip would feel better but then as soon as I started exercising again the inflammation within the hip would start up again.

“It was just a vicious cycle that I could never get rid of.”

Treating the injury

Earlier this year, the tennis champ has a hip resurfacing operation to correct the problem. According to the NHS, hip resurfacing is a type of hip replacement which replaces the surfaces of the hip joint.

The operation has given Murray a new lease of life: “I couldn’t remember what it was like to not have pain because it had been six, seven years of it.

“And [now] I have nothing.”

He is exercising cautiously in his recovery, however: “I need to remember that I have a metal hip and I want it to last as well so I’m a bit smarter with my training and scheduling.”

The operation and recovery process has also had a positive impact on his personal life.

“Things that were not fun for me for the last few years were all of a sudden great fun such as playing golf was you know or going and playing soft play with my kids, such as crawling through tunnels,” he divulged.

“I always wanted to do that and participate in those things my kids but when I was doing it it was like, ‘this is really uncomfortable’, whereas now I can do all that without thinking and and this is great and I didn’t need tennis for that.

“I wasn’t playing tennis for the first four months since the operation and I was happier than I’ve been in years.”

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