Likely prognosis set for Andy Murray as Wimbledon farewell mission in real jeopardy after Miami Open ankle injury

Andy Murray faces a race against time to have his Wimbledon farewell with the route back to full health laid out as he is set to see a specialist to discuss next steps after he confirmed the tough news that he would be out for an extended period with a serious ankle ligament rupture suffered at the 2024 Miami Open.

Murray said he wouldn't be playing past the summer with Wimbledon likely to be his stopping point with a home farewell. But he will face a real race against time to be there and will likely in any event have to skip the warm up tournaments that usually benefit from a name in the ilk of Murray. Another route could yet be the Olympic Games which he has previously mooted as a potential stopping point.

"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 1 hip and no ankle ligaments when the time is right," Murray wrote on social media.

Dr Daniel Fong who is a reader in Sports Medicine and Biomechanics at Loughborough University shared the likely scenario next for Murray. “The time of recovery depends on the treatment, which could be a few months for surgical reconstruction of the ligaments, or a few weeks for conservative treatments such as bracing, taping and exercise," he said to Express.

“It really depends on the decision made by the player, the coach and the medics. Some people can do well with strong muscles and proprioception to compensate for the reduced integrity of the ligaments. Many top players have experienced a lot of injuries during their career so this type of ligament injury is quite common for them.

“With the ligaments injured or ruptured, the ankle joint might have increased mechanical instability, but this could be compensated by strengthening the muscle-tendon unit so usually conservative treatments will be prescribed unless it failed to help the athlete to regain joint stability.

“The surgery itself can be done with minimal invasive arthroscopic surgery, or "keyhole" surgery, with tunnels drilled in the small ankle bones for passing through some grafts.”