In the space of 90 rollercoaster minutes, Nick Kyrgios described his brittle body as “absolute dogs***” and then said it was “pointless” to focus on it.

Herein lies what’s really wrong with the man forecast to drop to at least No. 67 in the world by the end of the Australian Open.

His body still isn’t that of a professional tennis player.

It is impossible to match the best in the world on a consistent basis when his body protests and breaks down on such a regular basis.

Any criticism of Kyrgios’ trim, wiry frame is of course nitpicking in the extreme, but his results, rankings slide and on-court grimaces speak volumes. The conclusion they draw is damning.

Nick is not a professional tennis player.

Talent has got him there, his body didn’t take the same ride.

The concerning repetition of Kyrgios’s vicious cycle of injury and niggle-management was highlighted by Aussie tennis great Todd Woodbridge on Wednesday morning as a career-killer in its current state.

Having not played between the end of his season in October and the Brisbane International that started at the end of December, Woodbridge says Kyrgios simply has to find a way to better prepare his body for grand slam events.

“He hasn’t got enough matches under his belt to come in here and play as well as he would want to,” Woodbridge said on Channel 9.

“He has to learn to try how to get his year extended so he can get more matches under his belt so that he is robust when you come into a major.”

Woodbridge also took a surprising swipe at the development of Kyrgios’s frame — suggesting, that at the age of 23 and after five full years on the ATP Tour, Kyrgios should be able to show off a bit more muscle definition like those at the top of the ATP Rankings.

“You look at his body compared to (21-year-old World No. 4) Sascha Zverev’s body. Take a look at the legs, there is no build-up,” Woodbridge said of Kyrgios.

“Nick doesn’t have to hit enormous amounts of tennis balls because he is gifted. He has to have a body that lasts. We can see troubles were the knee and his posture — how he is bent over. Eventually that will come into the elbow and shoulders. He has to take more ownership of that if he wants to go deep.”

Kyrgios’s slack approach cost him dearly last night against Milos Raonic. Down 5-4 in the second set tiebreak, he opted for a serve-and-volley but didn’t get to the net quick enough and failed to get down to Raonic’s return, which landed at his bootlaces.

Instead of getting low to work the half-volley over the net, Kyrgios stood tall and chunked it into the net, gifting Raonic a set point. Simply put, he took the easy option.

“He just doesn’t get down on this one at all, does he?” Woodbridge said in commentary. “He stands up and of course it’s hard to control from there.”

Kyrgios’s instant dismissal of the significance of the pain he was feeling in his knee during his straight-sets loss to Raonic at Melbourne Arena suggests he has no intention of taking ownership of hardening his body any time soon.

Kyrgios insisted this week he has been “super professional” in managing his ongoing knee soreness. His definition of “super professional” is very different to that of tennis legend John McEnroe.

The American legend made the startling observation in commentary for Channel 9 that there remains one stone that has gone unturned in Kyrgios’s “super professional” attempts to better manage his body.

That unturned stone is simply training hard for an extended period of time. It’s not rocket science.

“Does he not train enough because the body breaks down? Or does the body break down because you don’t train enough?” McEnroe said on Tuesday night.

“He wouldn’t know because he hasn’t trained hard enough to know.

“You’ve got to try the other way before you dismiss it.”

Kyrgios’s instant dismissal of the significance of his knee concern shows, unfortunately, he has dismissed it, exactly as McEnroe fears.

“I’ve had a sore knee now for a while,” Kyrgios said.

“Did everything I could. Been warming up. Been super professional before I’m even hitting. Warming up all the time. Just an ongoing thing. I don’t know why we’re talking about it. I literally just said it had nothing to do with my loss. Really pointless to keep asking me questions about it.”

Just over an hour earlier his knee appeared to be the bane of his existence as he twice called for a trainer.

“It hurts to walk, it hurts to rock on my serve, I’ve just given up basically,” Kyrgios was heard telling the physiotherapist during his medical time out.

“I’ve taken four tablets and it’s gotten worse. It’s f***ing terrible. By this stage, it’s f***ed. It feels like dogs***, mate. Absolute dogs***.”

McEnroe pointed out that Kyrgios’s refusal to get real about his preparation and his strength and conditioning is “going to be a problem”.

He just wants Kyrgios to give training to a truly professional level a real go.

“It’s going to take some time,” McEnroe said.

“He can’t say, ‘Well I trained hard for a few weeks and it didn’t happen’. You have to train hard for a couple of years and eventually that work is going to pay off for him.

“He’s not going to listen to anybody. He seems genuinely liked by the players and even the coaches like him. He basically tells them, ‘I’m not capable of listening’ basically and that’s going to be a problem for him. I really want to see him turn this around.”

Kyrgios’s first step towards trying to turn his career around will come in the doubles draw of the Australian Open where he is playing with good friend Matt Reid.

His immediate, calculated mindset switch to focus on doubles, rather than address the questions about his body, suggests the Nick Kyrgios turnaround won’t be happening any time soon.