Surgeon’s smugness gave Andy Murray the motivation to prove him wrong

Scot determined to defy medic who said he wouldn’t play professionally again

Andy Murray is itching to get started again as he prepares for his first grand slam event in almost two years. Picture: AP.

Never tell Andy Murray he cannot do something, not if you want to be proved right.

Three years ago, Murray was limping out of Wimbledon, beaten in the quarter-finals by Sam Querrey in five painful sets. His hip was shot and he could barely walk. The damage had been done a couple of weeks earlier in the semi-finals of the French Open and he was in serious pain.

Seeking as much medical advice as was available, he met a surgeon who told him that his days as a professional player were numbered. No matter, Murray looked for the positives and did what he could to prolong his career.

Come January the following year, he had surgery. That didn’t work. A year later, he had major, invasive surgery to resurface his knackered hip and, hopefully, have a normal, pain-free life.

After he had that second operation, there was no thought that he could play top-level, competitive tennis again. He was, he said, “in bits” when he came around from the anaesthetic. But then something happened.

As he prepared for his opening match against Yoshihito Nishioka on Tuesday, Murray was looking as fit as a butchers’ dog. After reaching the third round at the Western Southern Open last week (relocated from Cincinnati to the New York bio-bubble that will host the US Open this coming two weeks), he was ready for his first grand slam event in almost two years. He was itching to get started. Murray was back.

So, what had spurred him on to make such a monumental effort to get this far? Was it inspirational messages from loved ones or from sports stars he admired? No, it was that surgeon. But not for the reasons the medic may have hoped for.

“Actually, I bumped into him,” Murray said. “Weird timing, but I bumped into him the morning after I had my hip resurfacing when I took my first steps on the new hip with the crutches. I walked past him in the hallway. He smiled at me and said to my wife, ‘I told him he was going to have to do this.’

“It just really got me. I was not happy. Yeah, that was probably, I would say, the thing for me that gave me the biggest sort of motivation.

“At that moment, I’d obviously been going through a difficult time, had the operation, then I sort of felt like there was a bit of smugness to what he told me. Yeah, that was kind of enough for me.

“I was actually going to send him a bottle of wine to say thanks for motivation once I got back on the court competing again. I haven’t brought myself to do that yet.”

As his first grand slam back as a competitive singles player, the fan-free, behind closed doors US Open is not what he would have wanted but Murray is making the best of it.

There is nowhere to go other than the hotel or the tennis site but Murray does at least have a spot on the Arthur Ashe stadium to call his own. The top seeds were all allocated a sponsors’ suite on that court where they could chill and relax but Murray, the world No 134, has one, too.

“Past champions got one, as well,” he said with a broad smile. “That was a big win for me! Yeah, that has helped for sure. When it rains and stuff, like it has been today, just having a space to be able to just go and hang out. There’s a TV, you can sit and watch anyone that’s practising on Arthur Ashe. That’s for sure helped a bit.”

Now, in that same Arthur Ashe stadium, he has the diminutive Nishioka to face tomorrow (the Japanese is eight inches shorter, 40lbs lighter and nine years younger than Murray). The Scot could not be happier.

And somewhere in London, a surgeon is keeping his head down. He may be waiting a while for that bottle of wine.