Andy Murray faces an "extended" spell on the sidelines after he suffered a serious ankle injury during his defeat to Tomas Machac at the Miami Open.
Murray lost a marathon encounter to the Czech player 5-7 7-5 7-6 (5) but during the 10th game of the final set, hurt his ankle.
The three-time grand slam champion initially dropped to the floor in pain before he picked himself up and continued, but he will visit an ankle specialist when he returns to the UK this week.
"Yesterday towards the end of my match in Miami I suffered a full rupture of my ATFL (anterior talo-fibular ligament) and near full thickness rupture of my CFL (calcaneofibular ligament)," Murray said on Instagram.
"I will see an ankle specialist when I return home to determine next steps.
"Goes without saying this is a tough one to take and I'll be out for an extended period. But I'll be back with one hip and no ankle ligaments when the time is right."
Andy Murray has revealed he is still unsure exactly when this summer he will retire as a tennis player.
Last month Murray said that he "did not plan on playing much past this summer".
"I would love the chance to play in another Olympics, but also genuinely only if I felt like there was a chance of winning a medal," he said.
"I'm also very conscious that because of how amazing my experiences at the Olympics have been, I would want to be there by right and not just take one of the other guys' spots, because it is a brilliant opportunity.
"We have top doubles players (Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski are ranked inside the world’s top 10) and also Jack (Draper), Cam (Norrie) and Evo (Dan Evans) in singles as well."
Murray, a three-time grand slam winner, who held the number one spot in the men’s singles rankings for a total of 41 weeks in the same era as Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, could focus on the doubles at the Paris Olympics, which will be played on his least favourite surface, clay.
