So it was back pain that forced you to give up on Tuesday against Alexei Popyrin?
At training in Doha, I’m not sure why, I started to have back pain, I didn’t really know what it was. It has happened to me thousands of times in my career to hurt somewhere and finally, you play anyway and it passes. But I really hurt during the match against Miomir Kecmanovic. The next day, I went to do exams. They did an MRI and a X-ray and it turns out that I have ligaments that have calcified on my back.
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The doctors told me that it was something against which there is nothing we can do. The only thing is to try to calm the inflammation by giving an injection, which I did a few days ago when I got here. It’s complicated, because it’s something more or less irreversible. The doctors tell me that over time, maybe it will settle down and I won’t be in pain. But they don’t know how long it can take.
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Faced with Alexei Popyrin on Tuesday, the pain was unbearable?
Yes. I can’t, I can’t do it. The more I play, the more I rub, the more it hurts. It’s like chestnut blows, stab wounds in the lower back, a little sciatica style. It’s sad, because last year I came back to play, not to let my body stop me. And there, I start the year again with difficulty. This is not at all how I envisioned my start to the year.
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“As long as the doctors give me hope, there will be a reflection”
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Is there a real question today about what to do with your career?
I think we can consider everything. At first, I admit that I am rather in the near future, wondering what I will try to do to make it better. Afterwards, will it be better or not … As long as the doctors give me, in quotes, hope, there will be a reflection. If they don’t give me hope that it will get better at some point, there will be a little less thinking. “
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