CUP COULD KO MURRAY FOR SEASON; Andy will not risk further injury.

Byline: TED TRACEY

ANDY MURRAY played through the pain barrier in Britain's Davis Cup clash yesterday but admitted his troublesome wrist injury could cost him his season.

The world No.3 secured an early lead for John Lloyd's side at Liverpool's Echo Arena in the relegation play-off against Poland but was clearly hampered by the problem in his singles rubber against Michal Przysiezny.

Murray, struggling with the injury since the Cincinnati Masters last month, still managed to see off his opponent, ranked No.678 in the world, 6-4 6-2 6-4. Team-mate Dan Evans failed to follow Murray's lead and the play-off is now locked at 1-1 going into today's doubles. The Englishman lost his match 6-3 6-3 7-6(7-5) to Jerzy Janowicz.

With this weekend's losers relegated to the wilderness of Europe/Africa Zone Group II, Lloyd is dearly hoping Murray will be fit to partner Ross Hutchins today, before playing in the reverse singles tomorrow.

Murray, though, is making no promises and last night said: "It's not great but I knew that coming into the tie.

"It felt fine at the start but once the adrenalin wears off you start to feel it more. I found myself holding back quite a lot and I'm very conscious of it.

"I'm going to wait and see how it feels. If I feel fine, I'll play doubles. If I don't, I might not.

"I can't make it worse every single day and then by Sunday be struggling.

"Also I don't want to sacrifice the lot to play in the tie and end up hurting myself so badly that I can't play for a few months.

"Every time I play on it's making it worse. You never know how much damage you can do to yourself, you just hope it doesn't get so bad you can't play.

"I need to take some time off and let it try to recover. Four or five days isn't enough."

Unsure

Murray, who was out for three months when he injured his right wrist in 2007, admitted he is unsure how long it will take to heal.

He said: "If it takes four months to get better, it takes four months. If it takes a week, then it will take a week.

"I'll go back to London, I'll go see the specialist I saw when I hurt my right wrist and make a decision on what I'm going to do next."

Lloyd revealed he is prepared to give him as long as possible to decide on his participation but confirmed fellow Scot Colin Fleming would partner Hutchins if Murray was unable to play.

He said: "If Andy wants more time obviously he'll have more time. I would love him to play but he's a professional athlete and he knows his body a lot better than I do.

"He'll go as far as he can but if he can't play three matches, he can't play three matches."

Reflecting on the opening day, Lloyd said: "On paper it's turned out the way it was supposed to.

"I didn't think there was any way Andy was going to lose.

"The second singles match would have been a nice one to win but Janowicz showed the sort of ability he has.

"I thought Dan overall played pretty well but just couldn't quite hold him close enough."

Jamie Baker stretched his winning run to eight matches after beating Australian second seed Robert Smeets 6-3 6-4 to reach the semi-finals of the ITF Futures event in Darwin.

CAPTION(S):

PAIN GAME: Andy Murray holds his injured wrist as John Lloyd looks on GAME, PAIN AND MATCH: Andy Murray is in a hurry to win his Davis Cup tie yesterday but suffers with his sore wrist