ANDY MURRAY has revealed his hopes of a miracle Wimbledon farewell are still alive.
The 37-year-old’s dream of saying an emotional goodbye on Centre Court this summer looked OVER when he underwent surgery last week.
But his recovery has gone so well that he was able to hit balls yesterday and his name will be in Friday’s 10am draw.
And the two-time champ will now wait until the last possible minute before deciding whether or not to play at SW19.
Should Murray pull out of the singles there is still a chance he could play doubles with brother Jamie later next week to bring the curtain down on a glittering career.
He said: “If there was no chance of me being able to play Wimbledon, which I thought was going to be the case a week ago when I’d had my initial consultations and stuff, I wouldn’t be sitting here today just waiting until the last minute to have my name in the draw.
“I’m trying everything I can to play, I’m practising on the court, I’m rehabbing and trying to accelerate this process to give myself a chance to play.
“And yeah I don’t feel guilty about it. It has been mentioned to me, are you going to withdraw before the draw at 10am on Friday? And I’m like, Well, no, I’m not.
“I’m going to wait until the last minute to see if I’m going to be able to and I’ve earned that right to do that.
“This is not clear cut where I am 100% going to be ready to play or there is a 0% chance that I can play. That is the situation.
“I would say it’s probably more likely that I’m not able to play singles right now.
“I’m also f*****g doing rehab 24/7 to try to give myself that opportunity to play there again.”
Murray’s preparations appeared on course when he entered Queens earlier this month.
But he was forced to withdraw with a back problem, which was later diagnosed as a CYST which required immediate surgery.
That led to a report last Sunday saying he was OUT – a suggestion that infuriated the Murray camp, who were furious his medical details were leaked.
But the Scot maintains he has a chance of playing in some shape or form if his recovery continues to be positive.
He said: “When I had the injury at Queen’s and then had the subsequent scans and doctor’s appointments, it was a pretty difficult situation to be in.
“I was told I had to have the surgery immediately by multiple surgeons because of the nature of the problem.
“So I had to have the operation, but I was also given multiple different timelines for how long that would take.
“And I was also made aware that if I decided to try to play Wimbledon that there’s some risk associated with that and it’s whether or not I’m willing to take on that risk.
“But even with there potentially being a risk, I’ve obviously had the operation, the operation has gone really, really well and I’m recovering really well.
“I hit some balls yesterday. I’m not in much pain at all, but the nature of nerve injuries is that they’re quite slow to recover.
“I’m progressing really well, but I don’t know how I’m gonna wake up tomorrow and how quickly my nerve is going to recover because it’s not the same as injuring a muscle or tearing a muscle.
“Everyone’s going to be a little bit different in this respect, so it’s really hard to say.”
Murray’s plan has always been to play Wimbledon and then the Olympics, where he won gold medals in 2012 and 2016, before calling it a day.
But he admits he does NOT want that match at Queens to be his last, fuelling his desire to have a final bow on Centre Court.
He said: “All of the discussions and conversations that I’ve had with my team are that I’m not going to play past this summer.
“Obviously I’ve had the conversation with my family. and I have a family holiday booked the week after the Olympics.
“I’m not planning on going over to New York. But then I also don’t want the last time that I played on a tennis court to be what happened at Queen’s either.
“Again I know that there’s more important things in the world than how I finish playing my last tennis match or where I finished playing my last tennis match.
“But because of what I put into the sport over the last however many years, I would at least like to go out playing a proper match where I’m at least competitive, not what happened at Queen’s.
“So I can’t say for sure that if I wasn’t able to play at Wimbledon, and I didn’t recover in time to play at the Olympics that I wouldn’t consider trying to play another tournament somewhere.
“But if I’m able to play at Wimbledon and if I’m able to play at the Olympics, that’s most likely going to be it, yeah.”
He added: “I certainly couldn’t be preparing for Wimbledon in a worse way. But maybe this is just how it was meant to happen for me.
“Getting to play with Jamie in the doubles is something that obviously I have never done before.
“That can be special as well. But yeah obviously it’s been a tough, tough couple of weeks now.
“And I just hope that these next few days go well and keep progressing and I get the opportunity to play there again.”
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