Canadian Leylah Fernandez won’t play at Wimbledon this year after her father and coach, Jorge, confirmed that she will be sidelined until August due to a foot injury.
After the 19-year-old was omitted from the Wimbledon entry list on Friday, her father confirmed that the injury is a lot more serious than initially thought as she has a grade three stress fracture on the top of her right foot.
He revealed the news to Canada's TSN admitting it was hard watching her play with pain:
"Anger. I was very angry and very concerned. Again, it’s hard because you have both hats on and, of course, as a coach you kind of say like, okay you know what you got yourself into. That’s your decision that you’re going to make, then go ahead."
He continued:
“That’s one of the problems with the WTA is you don’t get a chance to consult our players. We don’t get a chance to call a simple 30 second time-out and see what is really going on. I know they tried it in the past and just wonder why it stopped.
And finished off with:
“I think there was moment where I could’ve put some sense into her. And maybe instead of it being what it is now, it could’ve been a little bit less. Of course as a father I’m concerned and sad and I wanted her to stop.”