Novak Djokovic makes injury admission before Wimbledon semi-final – 'There is a concern'

Novak Djokovic admitted he is concerned by the injury he sustained in the closing moments of his Wimbledon quarter-final. The seven-time champion came through in four sets against Flavio Cobolli on Wednesday, but suffered a scare in the last game of the match.

Djokovic was serving for the match at 5-4 in the fourth set when he slipped when going for the ball behind the baseline. He ended up in an awkward splits-like position, and although he went on to clinch the match 6-7, 6-2, 7-5, 6-4, he is a little bit worried about any lasting damage.

"There is a concern, but we'll see in the next 24 to 48 hours. It was an awkward, nasty fall," Djokovic told BBC Sport. "It isn’t the first and probably isn’t the last fall that I’ll have on the grass – it’s kind of something I’m used to.

“But this year I don’t think I’ve fallen so far in the Championship, and this came at an awkward moment, on match point. But I was fortunately able to win the next two points and close out the match. Let’s see. I'm going to address this injury with my team and hope that the severity is not too bad."

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Djokovic will face world No.1 Jannik Sinner in the semi-finals after the Italian beat Ben Shelton in straight sets. Sinner came into his quarter-final with an injury worry of his own, having hurt his elbow in the previous round against Grigor Dimitrov, and wore a strapping and needed painkillers against Shelton.

He is confident he will be fully recovered to face Djokovic on Thursday. "Returning fast serves is not easy,” he said. “But yes, it's not something crazy serious because if not I would be much more concerned.

"Time will always help and [Thursday] is one day off, which is going to be good for me, and Friday I'm going to be 100 per cent."

Remarkably, Djokovic will be competing in his 52nd Grand Slam semi-final – an all-time record in the men’s game – and his 14th just at Wimbledon, surpassing Roger Federer’s tally of 13. But he knows that his experience will count for little unless he’s right physically.

"I am just trying to focus on my recovery right now and getting my body in shape for a very physical battle," he said. "Hopefully I can deliver the level and be able to stay with him because it's going to take the best of me at the moment to beat Jannik.

"That's the only thing I'm thinking about right now – just getting myself physically and mentally in the right state so I can fight with him for as long as it's necessary."