By Ian Ransom
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Nick Kyrgios was forced to miss the French Open due to a foot injury sustained during the theft of his car and not because of a knee problem, his agent said on Thursday.
The Wimbledon finalist’s mother was held up at gunpoint by a Canberra suspect near his house and his Tesla stolen earlier this month, police allege.
Kyrgios’s agent, Daniel Horsfall, said the player had injured himself during the “high-adrenaline rush of everything” that had happened during the robbery.
“During the incident on May 1, they had the armed robbery at the house. With all the stuff that was going on Nick lacerated the side of his left foot. We don’t know how,” Horsfall told Reuters.
“Basically, it’s just set him back about two-and-a-half weeks in terms of his loading schedule to get back on court for what we thought was going to be the Grand Slam.”
A man was arrested in Canberra soon after the robbery, with Kyrgios assisting police by using an app on his phone to locate the car.
Horsfall said Kyrgios could not remember how the injury had happened but suggested he may have hurt himself while rushing through his house after hearing his mother in distress during the incident.
The laceration was under the left side of his foot near his baby toe, which had made training on court problematic.
“He couldn’t slide, couldn’t get on court because every time he put a shoe on it moved and it would re-open,” he added.
“His knee, as far as we’re concerned, is actually in fantastic shape, the surgery went well.
“His fitness is at a fantastic level. It was just when we got to the last point of that rehab, the on-court loading, this freak accident happened.”
Horsfall said the foot was almost healed and Kyrgios would be able to start increasing his hours on court with a view to rejoining the tour for the grass season, including the Stuttgart tournament.
Kyrgios has not spoken publicly about the incident but said in a post on social media that he had not slept much and was “battling a little.”
The French Open, the second Grand Slam of the season, runs from May 28-June 11.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
