Andy Murray’s ex-coach Miles Maclagan has made a massive prediction about the future of the former World No. 1, who is struggling with a career threatening hip injury, which forced him to withdraw from the Australian Open on Thursday.
Maclagan, who mentored the Briton from 2007 to 2010, was expecting him to make a radical change in his playing style. According to Maclagan, Murray’s counter-punching play takes a heavy toll on his body, particularly on his hip and he believes the two-time Wimbledon champ needs to get rid of that pattern in order to stay fit and healthy for many more years to come.
“If he can get fit, it might force him to play a different sort of game, with shorter rallies,” said Maclagan.
“That could be very exciting, [but] he’s got a tough road back.
“The characteristic of these great players is that when they’ve had a setback they often come back stronger, reinvigorated in the mind.
“He said he was tired, so could come back with a fresh mentality.”
Murray also stated in his emotional, social media post that he wanted to return to the sport, because “the little kid inside me just wants to play tennis and compete”.
But Maclagan appeared worried as Murray’s rehab didn’t heal his hip and a surgery was no guarantee of fixing a problem, which has bothered him for a long, long time now.
“It’s concerning because the first option hasn’t worked out, which was a lot of rehab,” Maclagan added.
“I know he’s put as much into it as he possibly could.
“There have been big advancements in medicine and there are guys like Lleyton Hewitt and Milos Raonic who had this sort of surgery and came back to a good level.
“But of course it’s never quite the same.
“There is a lot of wear and tear for athletes now, the way they play and the training they put themselves through so they can be as fit as they need to be to play at the level Andy Murray has.
“It would probably be more worrying if he’d had the surgery and still wasn’t quite right, so there’s still a plan B.
“I would imagine in the short term he’s probably pretty down.
“He’s made the effort to get out to Australia, it’s not like he’s just popped across to France to see how it is.”
