It appears Andy Murray will be walking away from tennis in 2019, but exactly when is still up in the air. The British champ announced that he plans to retire this year, saying he'd like to play through Wimbledon in July but may not be able to make it that far.

Murray, 31, has battled lingering hip issues for nearly two years and has been unable to return to full strength. As Murray met with the media on Thursday to talk about the Australian Open, which begins on Monday, he tearfully delivered the news.

"Obviously I have been struggling a long time and I have been in pain for about twenty months now,' Murray told reporters as he battled his overwhelming emotions. "I've pretty much done everything that I could to try and get my hip feeling better and it hasn't helped loads. I'm in a better place than I was six months ago but still in a lot of pain. It's been tough.

'I'm going to play here. I can still play to a certain level, not a level I'm happy playing at. It's not just that. The pain is too much really, I don't want to continue playing that way."

Murray sounded understandably frustrated about the persistent right hip issue that has plagued him since 2017, as well as with the various methods of treatment that have failed to remedy the problem.

"I've tried pretty much everything I could do but it hasn't worked," said Murray. "In the middle of December I spoke to my team and told them I can't keep doing this. I thought I need to have an end point, because I was playing with no idea of when the pain was going to stop."

He'll try to gut his way to Wimbledon, but he also recognized that the 2019 Australian Open could very well be his tournament if the pain is too unmanageable. When Murray ultimately decides he's had enough, he may elect to undergo a major hip surgery that would effectively end his playing days but hopefully improve his quality of life.

"It would be nice to do things without any pain, putting shoes and socks on, that would be the main reason for me doing it," he said.

Even if he decides to retire tomorrow, Murray will go down as one of the best players of this generation. He's a three-time Grand Slam winner (twice at Wimbledon, once at the US Open), a two-time Olympic champion, a Davis Cup champion, winner of the 2016 ATP World Tour Finals and a former world No. 1.

It's a shame that Murray likely won't be able to go out on his own terms, but that's still a pretty tremendous career for a guy who is still only 31.