Kyrgios' physio explains more on injury with extent and time away from tennis after Australian Open withdrawal

Nick Kyrgios withdrew from the Australian Open due to a knee issue that made it impossible for him to play tennis without major consequences.

Kyrgios made the announcement on day one of the event explaining that the Djokovic practice match was used as a test to see if he would be able to go. It became clear that he would not be able to go and he held a press conference to explain his frustration. His physiotherapist provided further information regarding the injury and withdrawal.

He said:

“It has been a pretty interrupted and difficult lead into the Australian Open unfortunately and during the last week or so Nick’s experienced some discomfort in his knee. [He had a] routine MRI just to make sure everything was okay [but it found] there’s a parameniscal cyst growing in the lateral meniscus which is the result of a small tear in his left lateral meniscus."

He further added:

“To Nick’s credit he did try everything to the point even last week he was having a procedure called fenestration and drainage where they use a syringe to try and drain the cyst which Nick has some pretty gruesome photos of. I’m pretty sure he’ll share them later. [He also had] injections that he could try and get in his knee without causing long-term damage."

The decision to withdraw was just the right on in the grand scheme of things:

“I think we made the sensible decision to withdraw him because at this stage he wants to feel mentally comfortable that he can go seven matches, he can go the distance, he needs to be able potentially [play] seven three-hour matches [as] simply getting on the court was not enough for him. We wanted to prevent him from causing further injury or making that injury worse.”