Leading injury prevention and athlete welfare expert Stephen Smith has told Tennis365 the \u201cchallenge\u201d Jack Draper is facing as he battles to return to action after a series of injury setbacks.<\/p>\n
Draper<\/a> has not played since he retired during his opening round match at the Barcelona Open in April due to a knee injury.<\/p>\n The British star confirmed he was dealing with an aggravated tendon in his right knee, and he has since pulled out of Madrid, Rome, Roland Garros and the Queen\u2019s Club Championships.<\/p>\n When announcing his withdrawal from Queen\u2019s, Draper revealed his plan to play at the ATP 250 in Eastbourne next week<\/a> \u2013 the week before Wimbledon begins.<\/p>\n In 2026, Draper has played only nine matches across four tournaments and a Davis Cup tie.<\/p>\n The 24-year-old made a comeback in February following over five months on the sidelines due to a bone stress injury in his left arm \u2014 which ended his 2025 campaign in August.<\/p>\n Draper reached a career-high ranking of world No 4 in June after an excellent first half of the season, but he is currently 113th in the world after dropping a huge amount of points during the clay-court season.<\/p>\n Carlos Alcaraz gets encouraging verdict on his wrist injury from leading expert<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n \u2018I spent four years training with Carlos Alcaraz and even I was surprised by his Grand Slam wins\u2019<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n In an exclusive interview with Tennis365, Smith \u2013 who is the founder and CEO of Kitman Labs, the world\u2019s leading sports science and performance intelligence company \u2013 discussed Draper\u2019s battles with his body.<\/p>\n \u201cIn general, recurring knee tendon related issues, the challenge isn\u2019t just getting back onto the court once,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n \u201cTendon issues are generally repetitive strain issues, they\u2019re generally a build-up, an accumulation of load and pain, swelling, discomfort.<\/p>\n \u201cThe real question here is whether Jack Draper can tolerate the density of elite tennis. Consecutive training days, repeated matches, travel, changing surfaces, and recovery demands over time.<\/p>\n \u201cHis team will likely be focusing on restoring repeatability. They won\u2019t just be thinking, \u2018Can I get him back for this tournament?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ll be looking at, how do they restore that repeatability, train hard on consecutive days. Can he maintain movement quality under fatigue? Can he recover well day-to-day between practices and matches, so that pain that he\u2019s getting from the tendon is not, let\u2019s say, it\u2019s not too much that he can\u2019t actually tolerate load.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith was also asked if it is concerning that Draper\u2019s knee injury surfaced so soon after he returned from the bone bruising issue.<\/p>\n \u201cIf he has bone bruising and it\u2019s right in the joint, it could also alter joint mechanics and movement mechanics,\u201d Smith explained.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd that means you try to take pressure off one area by moving slightly differently, and you put pressure on another area.<\/p>\n \u201cSo you can have compensatory conditions or secondary conditions that evolve from primary conditions. That\u2019s not all that unique.<\/p>\n \u201cI suppose it\u2019s the tennis schedule, the demands that are being placed on him, all those things, it\u2019s a bit of a crescendo, those things together. And it\u2019s hard to break free from that.\u201d<\/p>\n Draper\u2019s arm and knee injuries are the latest on a growing list of physical issues he has been afflicted by in his short career to date. He was forced to miss spells of 2023 and 2024 due to abdominal and shoulder injuries, while hip tendinitis disrupted his off-season ahead of the 2025 campaign.<\/p>\n Speaking to Tennis365 last year,<\/a> Smith admitted he was worried Draper\u2019s career could be cut short if he continued to suffer such frequent injuries as he drew comparison with Juan Martin del Potro.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s a sign that there\u2019s something from a management perspective that\u2019s probably missing there,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhether it\u2019s having more or less of something, additional strength and conditioning work, adjustments to how he\u2019s being managed through competitions, how is his practice loads being managed.<\/p>\n \u201cWhether it is alterations to his biomechanics and how he plays the game. I think to have the injury history that he\u2019s had at the age that he\u2019s at probably needs to be cognisant of the fact that something needs to change now, or he\u2019ll end up having a career that\u2019s cut short.<\/p>\n \u201cThink of someone like Juan Martin del Potro; incredible talent, with probably one of the most powerful forehands we\u2019ve ever seen in the game, but his greatest strength ultimately ended up being one of his biggest issues. Had all of those wrist issues, had lots of surgeries on it because that wasn\u2019t nipped in the bud.\u201d<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Andy Murray issues Jack Draper injury update ahead of Wimbledon amid \u2018unexpected\u2019 admission<\/a> The post Leading expert questions if Jack Draper \u2018can tolerate elite tennis\u2019 amid injury struggles<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Leading injury prevention and athlete welfare expert Stephen Smith has told Tennis365 the \u201cchallenge\u201d Jack Draper is facing as he battles to return to action after a series of injury setbacks. Draper has not played since he retired during his opening round match at the Barcelona Open in April due to a knee injury. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2354\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Exclusive Interviews<\/h2>\n
Smith has previously warned Draper\u2019s career could be cut short<\/h2>\n
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