Novak Djokovic could miss a “couple months” with a torn hamstring and potentially return in time for the French Open in May, according to a report from ESPN’s Chris Fowler.
Fowler said on air during Sunday’s Australian Open final in which world No. 1 Jannik Sinner defeated No. 2 Alexander Zverev in straight sets that he consulted with Sports Injury Analyst Marty Jaramillo of CBS Sports and formerly of ESPN about the injury that forced Djokovic to retire after one set in his semifinal loss to Zverev.
Djokovic suffered the injury in his four-set quarterfinal victory over Carlos Alcaraz. He posted an X-ray of the injury on social media, with the caption, “Thought I’d leave this hear for all the sports injury ‘experts’ out there.”
Djokovic was booed as he retired and then waved to the crowd in a mocking gesture.
“That’s no joke, that’s a pretty deep tear,” Fowler said. “That’s in the deepest part of the hamstring and the hamstring is a problem because it’s a big muscle. It’s deep in there, it’s hard to treat it 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.”
At that point, John McEnroe said, “So he’ll be ready for the French. He said he only cares about majors. Who can blame him at this point
The French Open runs May 25-June 8.
Djokovic, 37, has not won a major since the 2023 U.S. Open and remains tied with Margaret Court for the all-time lead with 24 major title
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