Novak Djokovic has enjoyed a phenomenal career, although he has not been immune to serious injury over the years.
Djokovic has looked toward retirement, but he remains active on the ATP Tour, with his current focus on the US Open.
The Serbian has won the hard-court Grand Slam four times, and is now into the second round at this year’s event.
Djokovic defeated Learner Tien 6-1, 7-6(7-3), 6-2 in New York, where he meets fellow American Zachary Svajda in round two.
He’s chasing a record 25th Grand Slam title at Flushing Meadows, which would move him one clear of Margaret Court in the all-time list.
Novak Djokovic recalls the worst injury of his tennis career
But Andy Roddick has a concern for Djokovic ahead of his next match, which arrives after he suffered from a nasty blister against Tien.
It does, however, undoubtedly fall well short of the worst injury of his entire career, which he has now recalled on the On Purpose Podcast.
READ MORE: Novak Djokovic sends message about the US Open crowd on Instagram after his first round match
Djokovic said: “I had surgery on my elbow back in 2017 and I had that injury for a year and a half. I don’t normally drink anti-inflammatories, I don’t like those tablets and cortisone shots or anything like that.
“I feel like that is only masking the problem, but sometimes in tennis we play five or six days in a row and you have no other option.
“If you want to stay alive in the tournament you have to do it. So I have done it for a year or something with playing under these pills every single match.
“I felt the pain even if I was taking the full dose of anti-inflammatories and that was the sign for me that I have to operate on this and do something different.
“I made a promise that I would not operate on myself throughout my career and would not make any surgery and I felt I had let myself down. I cried for days that I accepted the surgery.
“But the surgery was done for days. I felt like I had let myself down. I wanted to go through my entire career without having one surgery but it happened.”
Novak Djokovic says what he needs at this stage of his career after injury issues
Despite his clear ill feelings towards the idea, Djokovic confirmed the surgery on his elbow shortly after the 2018 Australian Open.
He labelled it a ‘small medical intervention’ on the troublesome problem, and followed that up with right knee surgery in 2024.
Discussing that torn meniscus, he said: “I had an endoscopic intervention on my knee last year during a match at Roland Garros, I won in five sets after four and something hours. I was winning comfortably in the last 16 round, then I felt a click. It was something, it was very weird.
“I had never had an injury of the knee, luckily, at least that severe and then I started to play but I could not stand on my leg and I was playing through the pain.
“I invited the physio and the doctor and he was touching me in this spot where my meniscus is and I felt that is very painful.
“He was like what do you want to do? I said I want to give it a shot and try, just give me the strongest painkillers you have right now, because I am on the court, with a full stadium. I want to try.
“So that’s what they have done and after 30 minutes they started kicking in and I was surviving in this 30 minutes.
“The pain then went down, it was still there, but I went through it and won the match and I finished the match with a pretty good feeling.
“I was confident for my quarterfinals which were coming up in two days but the next day I went for an MRI and saw I had a ruptured meniscus and had to be operated, so I pulled out of the tournament and did the operation.
“Wimbledon was coming up in three weeks and I still remember that conversation with my team on the rooftop.
“I remember my physio that I am with ‘it’s usually four to six weeks’ and stuff like this but we have had some miraculous recoveries from some athletes.
“And my physio was sitting on the rooftop and the whole team was there and he said I know you, do not even think for a second you will play Wimbledon. That is out of the question.
“I did not say anything. All the team members agreed. I said I understand what you are saying but please for my own mental sanity, because it’s Wimbledon, and my dream tournament and most important tournament. Let’s see how it goes in the next two weeks.
“Because I have three weeks in the tournament and I can pull out three or four days before the tournament. So I have two and a half weeks to play around.
“At that point I was on crutches. So long story short, I dedicated so much time in the day to recover, it was like a task for me to prove even the closest people in my team and family wrong that I can recover and it was really a mission.
“I recovered and played finals, I lost in the finals of Wimbledon and a week after that was the Olympics, where I played and won my gold medal.
“It was the best period of my 2024 season, was when I had a surgery, because something clicked in my head where my physio triggered me, and said do not even think about playing.
“For me what I heard was okay, thank you for giving me the task because now I have a challenge on my hands. All I needed was that.
“And actually that is what I need now, I feel like in this phase of my career, where I am trying to motivate myself and keep going. I need a challenge.”
As he alluded to, the Serbian veteran experienced a remarkable recovery from that surgery, reaching the final of Wimbledon five weeks after his surgery.
He lost to Carlos Alcaraz at the All England Club, but later that summer exacted revenge on the Spaniard by winning their Olympic gold medal match.
With Djokovic celebrating his 38th birthday earlier this year, it remains to be seen exactly how long he can play at the top level.
But he hugely impressively took his ATP Tour title tally to 100 at Geneva just two days after that birthday, with another US Open success now on his agenda.
Receive exclusive tennis news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
