Sir Andy Murray has been shortlisted for an international sporting award following his inspirational return to tennis after a career-threatening injury.
The two-time Wimbledon champion will come up against Scotland captain Andy Robertson's Liverpool in the ‘Comeback of the Year’ category at the Laureus World Sports Awards in Berlin next month.
READ MORE: New film reveals Andy Murray’s struggle after hip surgery
Murray claimed a first singles title on the ATP Tour for more than two-and-a-half years with victory over Stan Wawrinka in the final of the European Open in Antwerp last year after hip resurfacing surgery – an operation no singles player had ever attempted to return from.
The 32-year-old has now been shortlisted alongside the Anfield side’s comeback to defeat Barcelona in the semi-final of the Uefa Champions League and Rugby Union star Christian Lealiifano who recovered from leukaemia in time to represent Australia at the 2019 World Cup.
Toronto Raptors basketball star Kawhi Leonard, American swimmer Nathan Adrian and German Formula Three driver Sophia Flörsch are also in the running for the award.
READ MORE: Andy Murray 'gutted' to pull out of Australian Open with pelvic injury
Laureus Academy member and fellow former Wimbledon champion Boris Becker hailed Murray’s nomination, adding: “I never really expected to be making these comments about Andy, but it’s great that I can.”
“He seemed to be on the point of retiring but over the years his fighting spirit has always been one of his strongest assets and that was evident in 2019.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here