Nick Kyrgios shares post-surgery update
Nick Kyrgios has shared an update with his fans after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his knee.
“Surgery complete,” the 27-year-old tennis player announced in his caption, “I’ll be doing everything I can do to get back to my best. to the real ones checking in and sending the vibes…. I love you.”
The news was delivered on Instagram to Kyrgios’ 3.3m followers, and featured Kyrgios in a white hospital gown, lying in bed, and giving the camera the middle finger.
Kyrgios’ announcement that he would be withdrawing from the 2023 Australian Open due to injury came on January 16, when he told reporters that a parameniscal cyst was growing in his left meniscus, caused by a tear in his lateral meniscus.
On Monday, Kyrgios told fans that he would be undergoing surgery for the injury, and his update came hours later.
It is expected that the World No 21 will miss three to four weeks of play, with Kyrgios admitting that his decision did not come easily to him. He aims to recover in time to be back on the court for the Indian Wells Masters in March.
“I’m devastated, obviously. It’s my home tournament, I’ve had some great memories here,” he said, “Obviously, last year winning the title in doubles and playing the best tennis of my life probably.
“Then going into this event as one of the favourites, it’s brutal. All I can do now is just look forward, do what I need to do, and come back.”
Will Maher, Kyrgios’ physiotherapist Will Maher, confirmed that Kyrgios had explored every avenue to try and compete in the Open.
Get well soon, Nick ❤️#AusOpen • #AO2023
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 16, 2023
“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,” Maher told reporters. “It’s not a significant injury in the sense that it is going to be career-threatening or anything like that.
“Even at that stage it was still worth persevering to see if we could do anything to get him back on court. 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.”
Maher went on to stress that withdrawing was the right decision for Kyrgios and his future in tennis, and gave fans of the tennis star hope that they’d soon see him take the courts again.
“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,” Maher stated, “we wanted to prevent him from causing further injury or making that injury worse …
“It won’t interrupt his year tremendously despite the fact that it’s a great disappointment to withdraw from the Australian Open home Slam. The prognosis is good, he’ll be fine and we’ll just go back to work and make sure everything’s fine for him and we go again.”
Image: Getty Images