Nick Kyrgios is 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 Thursday.
Police said the Wimbledon finalist’s mother was held up at gunpoint on May 1 by a suspect in Canberra, Australia, near Kyrgios’ house, and his Tesla was stolen.
Kyrgios’ agent, Daniel Horsfall, said the player injured himself during the “high-adrenaline rush of everything” that had happened during the robbery.
“With all the stuff that was going on, Nick lacerated the side of his left foot,” Horsfall told Reuters. We don’t know how. Basically, it’s just set him back about 2½ 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 pinkie 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 reopen,” Horsfall said, adding that Kyrgios’ knee was in “fantastic shape” following surgery.
Kyrgios hasn’t played a tournament since October after scans showed a cyst growing on his meniscus. He withdrew from the Australian Open in January, when he underwent surgery.
Horsfall said this latest injury to his foot has almost healed and Kyrgios would be able to start increasing his hours on court with a target of 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.”
In addition to the French Open, Kyrgios has pulled out of an exhibition match against Holger Rune in Denmark.
The French Open, the second Grand Slam of the season, runs from May 28-June 11.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.