Alcaraz won his last match, beating a qualifier in the opening round of the Barcelona Open, but was in visible discomfort and withdrew before the following round.

Photographs and videos were posted to his social media channels showing him participating in a training session in Murcia on Tuesday, sporting the longer hair he has grown out during his absence.

A competitive return is still a few weeks off at least, however, meaning he will at best be carrying almost five months’ worth of rust into the US Open, or at worst won’t be able to play at all.

But with wrist injuries in tennis, waiting longer can help prevent the problem becoming recurrent.

“The biggest risk of injury is a previous injury – if you have had it once, you are more likely to have it in the future”, Ross adds.

“If a player can get back over a period of a few months and they don’t have a reoccurrence, generally they will be ok.

“But some things can become chronic and the pressure of the sport to come back, earn money by playing, and keep your ranking points, is a risk.”

One of the key challenges a wrist injury presents is psychological – once a player has suffered a painful injury in the joint which controls so much of their technique, it can be difficult to fully trust it again.

“Wrists aren’t easy”, said Andy Murray towards the end of his career, having suffered injuries in both wrists in his early 20s.

“When the ball is low you know you really have to use your wrist to get the ball up and down, or when the ball is coming fast and quite high you need to use your wrist a lot to bring the ball down.

“It’s difficult when you try to come back [from a wrist injury], because the pain that you feel when you initially hurt it, mentally it’s very difficult to let go of.”

Tottenham Hotspur centre-back Ashley Phillips is set to join Middlesbrough on a permanent deal.

An agreement has been reached consisting of an initial fee of around £7million, plus up to £13m in potential bonuses and add-ons, according to sources with knowledge of the deal, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships.

Personal terms are in place on a five-year deal and Phillips, 22, is scheduled to undergo a medical before completing the move.

The defender would become the second Spurs player to make a permanent switch to Middlesbrough this summer, following striker Will Lankshear, who joined in July.

Phillips joined Spurs from Blackburn in the summer of 2023 for around £3m but is set to depart without making his senior competitive debut for the club, after spending the last two and a half seasons on loan in the Championship.

He joined Plymouth Argyle for the second half of the 2023-24 campaign, winning the club’s young player of the year award, before making 83 appearances across the past two seasons at Stoke City.

Phillips’ Spurs contract had been due to run until 2028.

Spurs signed centre-back Jan Paul van Hecke from Brighton & Hove Albion in a £52m move this summer, before 19-year-old defender Luka Vuskovic moved in the opposite direction for £46m.

Middlesbrough, meanwhile, have had money to spend this summer after selling midfielder Hayden Hackney to Everton in July. The deal could rise to just under £25m ($33.3m) if all clauses, which are based on appearances, England selection and Everton’s qualification for European competition, are met.

The club are also due a significant sell-on fee from Morgan Rogers’ £117m move from Aston Villa to Chelsea, having inserted a 20 per cent sell-on clause in the deal that took the attacking midfielder from Teesside to Villa Park in January 2024.

Kim Hellberg’s side missed out on promotion to the Premier League last season after losing the play-off final to Hull City.

Jonathan Taylor said he wanted to be an Indianapolis “Colt for life.” Now the star running back is one step closer to turning that dream into reality. Taylor agreed to a two-year, $44 million contract extension Thursday with the Colts, according to a league source who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The deal is worth up to $47 million and includes $39 million guaranteed. Taylor will now be under contract through the 2028 season.

Taylor was entering the final year of a three-year, $42 million contract extension he inked in October 2023. That lucrative deal came after a public and sometimes bitter back-and-forth between Taylor and his agent, Malki Kawa, and late Colts owner Jim Irsay. Taylor and Irsay even exchanged verbal jabs via social media before Taylor landed a new deal. This time around, the negotiations went a lot smoother, as the 2020 second-round pick participated in training camp and was rewarded with a third contract from the team that drafted him, which is an increasing rarity for running backs.

The new deal puts Taylor second among running backs in terms of average annual value. He trails only the Atlanta Falcons’ Bijan Robinson ($22.25 million).

“I’d definitely love to be a Colt for life. I think I’ve already expressed that to them throughout the years,” Taylor said during minicamp. “… Hopefully they feel the same (way) because this is a special place. Not every building is like this, and I’ve heard some stories now, especially from guys coming from other places, and it’s not like this elsewhere.”

Taylor, 27, is coming off an impressive 2025 campaign that at one point had him in the league MVP conversation. He appeared in every game and registered 1,585 rushing yards, his most in a season since earning a first-team All-Pro nod in 2021. Additionally, Taylor’s league-leading 20 total touchdowns (18 rushing and two receiving) last year are tied with Hall of Famer Lenny Moore for the most in a single season in Colts history. Taylor is the only Colts player to reach that threshold twice (2021 and 2025).

Taylor’s new deal confirms that the Colts view him as a part of their long-term future, even if the man who brought him to Indianapolis may not be around. Colts general manager Chris Ballard is entering the final year of his contract, and it’s fair to consider that if Indianapolis misses the playoffs for a sixth straight season, Ballard could be relieved of his duties.

Ballard traded up three spots to select Taylor with the No. 41 pick in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft. The former Wisconsin standout has had some durability issues throughout his pro career, missing at least three games in each of the 2022, 2023 and 2024 seasons. Despite those absences, Taylor has still emerged as one of the league’s premier running backs.

Taylor’s career average of 90.5 rushing yards per game is the most among active players and ranks fifth all-time behind Hall of Famers Jim Brown, Barry Sanders, Terrell Davis and Eric Dickerson, respectively. Taylor, a three-time Pro Bowler, ranks first in Colts history with 69 rushing TDs. His 7,598 rushing yards are second in franchise history only to Hall of Famer Edgerrin James (9,226).