I'm ready for seven matches - Wimbledon champion Murray plays down injury concerns
A hip problem has proven a pain for Andy Murray, but the Wimbledon champion said: "I'll be fine to play the event and play seven matches."
Andy Murray says he is fit to defend his Wimbledon title from Monday, despite being hampered by a sore hip in the lead-up to the grass-court grand slam.
Doubts over Murray's readiness to compete at the All England Club had surfaced after the world number one withdrew from two exhibition matches earlier this week before showing signs of discomfort in practice sessions.
However, in a news conference on the eve of his opening-round match against Alexander Bublik, the Briton insisted he was ready for a full fortnight of activity.
"I'll be fine to play the event and play seven matches. I mean, things can happen obviously when you're playing. Players have got injured during tournaments. But as I am today, I'd be delighted and have no issues getting through," said Murray.
"If necessary, I can take some anti-inflammatories if my hip flares up. Hopefully that's not the case."
Discussing his injury trouble ahead of Wimbledon, Murray added: "I've had hip problems since I was very young. You know, it's not something new to me. It's just been very sore the last few weeks. It was giving me quite a lot of trouble moving to certain shots and getting into certain positions.
"So that was why I needed to take the break, to try and give it a chance to settle down, calm down a bit. I spent a lot of time with my physio and doing some extra exercises in my warm-up, strengthening exercises, a lot of stuff to try to loosen off that area.
"It's felt much better the last few days. Practice each day has got a little bit better. It's been slightly stop-start preparations, but each day I've felt better."
Murray also had limited time on court prior to the French Open, but nevertheless made the semi-finals at Roland Garros before losing to Stan Wawrinka.
"I still found a way with each match to feel a bit better, and built confidence each day. So I'm hoping that's the case here," added the 30-year-old.
"Obviously this is an extremely important tournament, so you worry a little bit. It's a little bit stressful if you can't practice for a few days, you really want to be preparing, training as much as you can to get ready ... especially when you hadn't had any matches.
"But I've just tried to think positively. I tried to make the best decisions along with my team to give myself the best chance to feel good on Monday. I feel like I've done that."
It was also confirmed on Sunday that Murray is set to become a father for the second time.
"We [Murray and his wife Kim] are both obviously very happy and looking forward to it," he added.