Andy Murray has announced he underwent surgery on his right hip on Monday morning and is hoping to return to competitive tennis for the 2018 grass-court season.
The 30-year-old former world number one, who has not competitively played since Wimbledon last summer and last week withdrew from this month's Australian Open, announced via his official Facebook page that he had gone under the knife in Melbourne, and vowed to return to the top.
Murray wrote: "Today I underwent successful right hip surgery at the St Vincent Hospital in Melbourne.
"I'd like to thank Dr John O'Donnell and all of the staff for looking after me. I look forward to returning to competitive tennis during the grass-court season.
"Thanks to everyone for all the well wishes and support over the last few days. I'll come back from this."
Murray last week posted an emotional message on Instagram, detailing his disappointment at being forced to withdraw from the Brisbane International.
The now world number 19 said the two options available to fix his troublesome hip were to continue with rehab or have surgery, for which he admitted the chances of success were not as high as he would have liked.
But, after undergoing the operation in Australia, Murray's outlook was more optimistic.
"I'm very optimistic because, having spoken to the surgeon after he did the surgery, he was very happy about how it went," Murray said, quoted by several national newspapers.
"He felt that my hip will be feeling better than it did a year ago and, obviously, I was still doing fine a year ago, I was ranked number one in the world.
"Moving forward I'll certainly be playing a reduced schedule, and then focusing more on trying to win major events and big tournaments rather than trying to achieve certain ranking goals."
Murray also said he underwent some minor surgery on his groin on December 18.
He concedes he may only ever reach 95 per cent fitness but believes that would still be enough to challenge for grand slam titles.
"I've been fairly competitive with top-50 players in the world practising in Brisbane when I was struggling to move, and I made the quarter-finals at Wimbledon when I literally couldn't walk and was in so much pain," Murray said.
"So if I can get myself to 95 per cent of my best, I believe that's enough to compete at the highest level. No question."
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