Andy Murray has spoken for the first time about his revised career expectations, having spent almost six months off the tour because of a chronic hip injury.

Next week in Brisbane, Murray is due to play his first ATP event since Wimbledon. But in his arrival press conference in Australia today, he admitted that he may not be able to compete for the top honours in the way he used to.

“I just want to be able to play tennis,” Murray said. “I don't mind if it's 30 in the world level. I would love it to be No 1 in the world level, but yeah, I just want to play. When that's taken away from you, you realise how important it is.

“I want to get back to playing my best tennis and winning the biggest tournaments. But if I don't, I'm okay with that. I just want to keep playing.

“On a day-to-day basis, it's difficult to tell exactly what my level is, when you've had such high expectations for quite a long time.

“When I have a few bad days, I might feel like I'm playing really poorly, but I might still be good enough to beat top 30, top 40 in the world, which is still a really, really high level... I'll see when I get back on the match court.”