Novak Djokovic alarmingly declared “everything is far from OK” when discussing his knee injury as he shared an update before a Wimbledon fourth-round tie with Holger Rune

The seven-time summer Grand Slam champion underwent surgery on his knee to repair a torn meniscus following his withdrawal at the French Open.

Few expected Djokovic to return and play at Wimbledon, but he turned up with strapping and brushed aside Alexei Popyrin, Jacob Fearnley and Vit Kopriva to set up a tie with Rune for a place in the quarter-finals.

Rehabilitation had been seemingly going well with Djokovic training and playing at full capacity, but after reaching the fourth round he revealed that there were still some injury concerns going into the second week of SW19

“I’m glad you think everything is OK, that’s how it should work, but everything is far from OK,” Djokovic told Serbian outlet SportKlub.

“Well, about that another time – the movement was a lot better compared to the first two matches, I’m more free in that context, but everything is far from OK, I’m constantly working on the table to get ready for each subsequent match.”

Djokovic has not yet repeated such concerns to the British press in his press conferences at Wimbledon, but opening up more candidly to the media in his homeland will worry those rooting for him to equal Roger Federer’s record of eight men’s singles titles this year.