Jack Draper has admitted that “life as an athlete is pretty dark” as he blamed the tour schedule for mounting injuries in tennis which have taken a toll in 2026.

In a career already beset by injuries, Draper was unable to play a single major this calendar year, while Carlos Alcaraz missed two and Jannik Sinner was absent from the US Open, the final grand slam tournament of the season.

Draper said the moment he wept through a change of ends in Montréal was “rock bottom”, but there has been little respite from a bone bruise in his elbow that has developed into a chronic problem.

He is however far from the only player with serious injury issues. Asked about Rafael Nadal’s chronic foot injury, Draper told Bagel Magazine: “That’s something athletes deal with all the time: constantly with niggles, constantly in pain. It’s dark. Truthfully, you see all the highs, you see all the successes, but life as an athlete is pretty dark.”

Draper has not played on tour since his straight-sets defeat by Martín Landaluce in Cincinnati in August. In fact, he has played just 15 professional matches this year, of which eight were during his impressive runs at Eastbourne and Indian Wells.

In his time away from the court, Draper recently went to Brazil, where he had a nose ring fitted to add to his collection of tattoos which include a lightning bolt on his left upper arm.

Draper might be one of a few players on tour with the tools to threaten the top players, but he is also on the list of talented players who have suffered long absences including Holger Rune (ruptured Achilles’ tendon), Lorenzo Musetti (thigh injury) and Arthur Fils (spinal stress fracture).

On matches getting longer and the physical demands of tennis increasing, Draper said: “There’s been a lot of money-making decisions in tennis, especially from higher up. And although there’s been a lot of good stuff going on, they’re really putting a whole generation in danger, getting injured all the time.

“It’s more to do with the nature of the way the game’s going as well: slower courts, slower balls and then athletes getting better. So it’s not in a good place.”

Tennis players have limited options. Some, such as 39-year-old Novak Djokovic, choose to manage their schedule to limit appearances and favour bigger events, while others like Casper Ruud choose to miss almost the entire grass-court season – other than Wimbledon – because it does not suit his game.

Andy Murray, who coaches Draper, knows his way around a physio table more than most. During his career, he underwent two hip surgeries, an operation on his back, another on his knee and, in his final year, one to remove a spinal cyst. Draper, aged 24, does not want to get to that point. “The main thing is I don’t want to get older and not be able to touch my toes,” he said.

Draper will not play again this season, although it remains to be seen when he will return to the ATP tour. Last year he came back to take part in a Davis Cup round against Norway at the start of the year, but he has not announced a timeline yet for 2027.