The Scottish ace has confirmed that he will not compete in the singles tournament at the US Open after he was beaten by Richard Gasket at the Cincinnati Masters.
It was his first singles match since the Australian Open in January.
Andy Murray tearfully announced he was close to retiring from tennis after his defeat in Australia, before undergoing hip resurfacing surgery.
The world number 326 then took some time away from the sport, as he recovered from the surgery away from the public eye.
Upon his return, he teamed up with his brother, Jamie, as well as Serena Williams and Feliciano Lopez for a series of doubles tournaments.
And after suffering a 6-4, 6-4 defeat to Richard Gasquet in the Cincinnati Masters, he revealed that for a while, tennis was not his priority.
“My mentality changed a lot because I wasn’t in pain anymore,” he admitted.
“And I was always worried, ‘What will I do with myself without tennis?’
“But actually once I got rid of the pain, I realised I didn’t really need tennis. Tennis wasn’t the most important thing for me.
“I’m obviously happy to be back playing.
“I thought it maybe would have changed my perspective completely on things, but I’m sitting here disappointed, which I think is probably a good thing, and if I want to get back to playing at a high level, if I was sort of just happy to be back on the court and not really worried about the outcome, then I’d be a bit maybe concerned about that.”
Murray was beaten comfortably by Gasket in the first round of the Cincinnati Masters, but refused to be downhearted.
The Scot insisted that he felt okay after the match progressed.
“The first game I felt quite nervous. [In] the first couple of games, it was actually pretty windy at the beginning,” he continued.
“It was fine sort of midway through the first set, but right at the beginning it was pretty breezy, and I just felt a bit unsure of myself at the beginning and played a poor game to get broken.
“I just haven’t played a match for seven months. I hardly played before then, either.
I haven’t played many matches in the past 18 months, really.”