John McEnroe offers positive Novak Djokovic opinion after injury setback – ‘Who can blame him at this point?

Shahida Jacobs
Pictured: Novak Djokovic and John McEnroe
Novak Djokovic with John McEnroe inset

It could be a while before Novak Djokovic returns to a tennis court as it has been suggested that he could be out of action for “a couple of months”, yet John McEnroe feels there is a bit of good news in the misery.

The 24-time Grand Slam winner’s bid to win a record-extending 11th title at Melbourne Park came to an end in devastating circumstances in the semi-final against Alexander Zverev.

Djokovic was in discomfort during the match against Carlos Alcaraz in the quarter-final, but managed to defeat the world No 3 in four sets.

His struggles continued against Zverev and he only lasted one set before throwing in the towel due to his hamstring injury after the German won the opener 7-6 (7-5).

He was greeted by boos on Rod Laver Arena, but he admitted that there was no way he could continue playing.

“I did everything I possibly can to basically manage the muscle tear that I had,” Djokovic said after the match. “Yeah, medications and, I guess, the strap, and the physio work helped to some extent today.

“But yeah, towards the end of that first set I just started feeling more and more pain. It was, yeah, too much, I guess, to handle for me at the moment.”

With some questioning whether or not his injury was as serious as he claimed, Djokovic later posted a scan of his injury on social media and hit back at the “sports injury ‘experts’ out there”.

The image clearly showed a hamstring tear and he also confirmed that he has withdrawn from Serbia’s Davis Cup tie against Denmark this week and the Qatar Open in mid-February.

But it could be a couple of months before he plays competitive tennis again, according to EPSN’s Chris Fowler due to the nature of the injury.

“That’s no joke, that’s a pretty deep tear. That’s in the deepest part of the hamstring and the hamstring is a problem because it’s a big muscle,” the tennis pundit said.

“It’s deep in there, it’s hard to treat properly. The hamstring doesn’t have great blood flow, so it’s harder to treat it than some other muscles.

“You can’t rush a hamstring, you’ve got to be very sure before going back out there. Typically if you’re looking at injuries like that in sports, you’re looking at a couple months.”

Novak Djokovic News

Novak Djokovic to receive ultimate Australian Open honour – but his haters are not happy

Andy Roddick issues ‘vintage, peak Novak Djokovic’ claim after the Serb’s Australian Open run

There are two big tournaments in the month of March with the Indian Wells Open the first ATP Masters 1000 event of the season followed by the Miami Open.

The clay-court season gets underway in April and even if he misses the first month or two of the swing, he is should be ready for the French Open, something that John McEnroe sees as a positive.

Tennis great McEnroe – who was one of those who questioned the seriousness of Djokovic’s injury – added on ESPN: “So he’ll be ready for the French. He said he only cares about majors. Who can blame him at this point?”