After undergoing pioneering hip surgery, it seems like Andy Murray is back in the game. On 5th July, Andy Murray teamed up with Serena Williams to play a blockbuster mixed-doubles match against Andreas Mies and Alexa Guarachi. It’s a stunning recovery for someone who only six months ago announced his retirement from professional tennis. The question is: can he recover fully and regain his position of world number one?
How Andy Murray’s hip problem cost his career
In 2016, Andy was arguably at the height of his game. He was the champion at Wimbledon, the ATP World Tour Finals, and became the first tennis player in history to win two Olympic gold medals.
Murray was knighted in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to tennis and charity, but after a series of shock defeats in the months that followed, it became clear that something was wrong. He was defeated in the quarter finals of Wimbledon and missed the Canadian entirely due to a hip injury. When he was forced to withdraw from the US Open just two days before the tournament was scheduled to begin, many started to wonder when – and if – Murray would be back on the court. In the end, Wimbledon was to be the last tournament Andy Murray played in that year.
After a hip operation in January 2018 Murray returned to play – but hopes that surgery would solve his problem faded when he lost his British no. 1 title to Kyle Edmund in March and dropped out of the US Open in August in the second round. By 11 January 2019 it seemed like the game was up – and Murray announced his retirement from professional tennis.
What was the problem?
During the announcement, Andy Murray revealed that he had been suffering from hip pain for the last eight to nine years. It was causing problems not just on the pitch but off-pitch as well – with the athlete struggling to even do basic tasks such as putting on his socks and shoes. Despite following a rigid rehabilitation programme, the pain did not improve, which led Murray to try surgery in early 2018.
So why was causing Murray’s hip pain? In an interview with Medscape, Professor John Skinner argues that it was most likely end-stage arthritis – where the hip joint is gradually worn away, exposing the bone and causing severe pain. For most people, this happens in the 60s and 70s. With tennis being a relatively hip-friendly sport, the only explanation, as Professor Skinner argues, is anatomy:
“I suspect he had a form of dysplasia. And what that does is concentrates the load on a smaller surface area so it wears out quicker…the other thing is impingement, where part of the neck of the femur rubs against the edge of the socket.”
In other words – Andy Murray was extremely unlucky.His hip simply wasn’t built to withstand the weight upon it, meaning it had become severely damaged by the time he turned 30. The incredible thing is that despite struggling through intense pain, Murray has been able to consistently play – and win – in one of the most competitive eras in men’s tennis.
Murray’s announcement was devastating to his fans and the wider tennis community. Then a fellow tennis player, Bob Bryan, suggested that Murray undergo a procedure called hip resurfacing, something which he himself had the previous year. Murray took a chance and underwent the operation just two weeks later.
What did the surgery involve?
Hip resurfacing is an alternative to a full hip replacement. Rather than replace the whole joint, the head of the femur (the ball) is not removed but instead reshaped so that a metal cap is cemented on top of it. The surface of the socket is replaced also with a metal implant, wedged directly into the bone. This allows the hip to move smoothly in its socket.
The advantage of hip resurfacing is that it preserves more of the bone. It also tends to keep the hip more securely in its socket, reducing the risk of injury. However, although it’s a less major operation than full hip replacement, there’s still a long recovery period involved.
How long will it take Andy Murray to recover?
“With someone like Andy, who is young and very fit, you would expect him to do a phased-type recovery” says Professor Max Fahily. “During the first two to three weeks, you are on crutches. Once he has got all of his range of movement and strength back, you would then start to focus the rehab on tennis specifically, and slowly build it up.”
Overall, “the recovery for any type of hip replacement is probably about six to 12 months”.
From what we’ve seen so far, Professor Fahily’s predictions were bang on. Just two months after the operation, Andy Murray hit his first tennis ball. By June he was competing in the doubles competition of the Queen’s Club Championships, where he won the tournament alongside Feliciano Lopez. Murray reports he is now “pain-free”, and hopes to be competing in singles matches by the end of the year.
Will he need more surgery in the future?
As already mentioned, tennis is a hip-friendly sport. But with Murray returning to play at the highest level, we can expect him to experience further wear and tear in his new hip. This might happen more slowly than previously if the anatomical issue he was struggling with has been corrected.
In the long term, we don’t know how long Andy Murray’s new hip will last. Hip resurfacing is a relatively new treatment, and the types of implants currently being used are even newer. It’s possible that Andy Murray will need a full hip replacement eventually. For now, however, it looks as though Murray has been given a second chance – and his recovery might take him all the way to world number one.
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