A leading athlete welfare and injury expert has told Tennis365 that Carlos Alcaraz’s lengthy absence due to a wrist injury is a result of “one of two things.”
Alcaraz has not played since injuring his wrist during his opening round win at the Barcelona Open on 14 April.
The seven-time Grand Slam winner is reportedly suffering from tenosynovitis — which is an inflammation of the tendon sheath in the wrist.
The world No 2 has already missed the last two Grand Slams and last four Masters 1000 tournaments, and he is yet to confirm when he will return to the match court.
Alcaraz remains on the entry list for the 2026 US Open, but many think that the New York major — which will begin on Sunday 30 August — will come too soon for the defending champion.
The Spanish superstar withdrew from the Cincinnati Masters, and he is not scheduled to play any tournaments before the US Open.
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Smith, who is the founder and CEO of Kitman Labs — the world’s leading sports science and performance intelligence company — assessed that Alcaraz’s significant spell on the sidelines could be “a good sign.”
“I would say they are managing it very carefully, and I would think, in some ways, it’s a good sign because they’re obviously taking it really seriously,” Smith said in an exclusive interview with Tennis365.
“I think it was suggested that this [injury] was tenosynovitis, which is an overuse injury — like Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper’s injuries. All three are overuse injuries where they’re not coping with the load and demands of the game.
“We’ve seen other players drop out for shorter periods and try to jump back in… I think we’re seeing potentially a very different philosophical approach [from Alcaraz], to say, let’s potentially pause, let’s not have an issue when we come back out and it flares back up again.
“So, I would think it’s one of two things. It’s either really, really challenging, and he’s still having a lot of symptoms, or they’re being really patient and they’re thinking about how to do this the right way, and how to bring him back and ensure this doesn’t rear its head and they don’t have recurrences.
“Obviously, without being in that team, it’s hard for us to understand which of those that is. But for his sake, you would hope that it’s the latter.”
Smith has also told Tennis365 that he would be “shocked” if Alcaraz played the US Open.
“Given how patient they’ve been, I would be shocked to see him at the US Open,” said Smith.
“If you’re taking that patient approach and you’re progressively building, why throw somebody back in to the hardest thing they might do all year? Surely, you want that to be a progressive build.”
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