Andy Murray’s participation in next week’s Davis Cup quarter-final can be effectively ruled out after his older brother Jamie revealed that he is suffering from a “tear in the elbow” and urged him to rest up for the heavy spring schedule ahead.

Murray’s management company have yet to make any comment over the severity of the injury, but the talk in the Miami locker room is that Murray is unlikely to return before the Madrid Masters in six weeks’ time.

Elbow injuries are an occupational hazard in tennis and the one thing everyone knows is that you cannot rush the healing process. Playing through pain is liable to turn an acute problem into a chronic one.

“It’s some sort of tear in his ­elbow,” said Jamie Murray after he and his partner Bruno Soares had moved into the quarter-finals of the doubles here at the Miami Open.

“He said he can do everything ­except serve and he told me rest was all he had to do.

“I am not planning that he is ­going to be there [in Rouen to face France next week]. If he is, then, obviously great for the team and we’ll see what happens, but the most important thing for him is just to get healthy because he has had a few issues now.