Lucas Pouille has given an update after suffering a horror injury in the final of the Lille Challenger.

The former world No. 10 ruptured his Achilles tendon while serving for the second set and was forced to forfeit the match.

Pouille needed crutches to return to the court for the trophy presentation and, during his speech, claimed he may have to retire.

“The news is, I think, not good,” he told the crowd after his injury retirement against Arthur Bouquier.

“I don’t want to make any statements until there have been tests. But there is a chance that this will be the last match of my career. I think it’s a complete rupture of the Achilles tendon.”

Pouille has now undergone surgery and given an update, backtracking on his retirement comments and sharing his hopes of making a return.

“The scar is sensitive, but it will pass with the pills. Overall, it’s fine. After that, it will take a long time,” the Frenchman told Eurosport, discussing his recent surgery.

“Before returning to competition, I would say that we need to count on at least seven or eight months. We are rather going to count on a return at the beginning of 2026.”

Asked about his retirement comments in Lille, Pouille replied: “I also said that I was going to do everything in my power to try to come back.

“It’s not necessarily under the influence of emotion. I thought that after a ruptured Achilles tendon, it was almost impossible to play tennis at a high level again.

“It’s still a sport where there are an incredible number of starts. We demand a lot from them. And then, it’s true that when the heat of the moment is on, [I questioned if I could] manage to make all the necessary efforts to start from scratch. Because, at the beginning of 2026, I’ll have almost zero points, I’ll be 600th or 700th in the world.”

Explaining what motivated him to attempt a comeback in 2026, the 30-year-old continued: “The pleasure of playing, of feeling this adrenaline, this emotion on a tennis court.

“The desire also to prove that I can come back. There is this little question of personal pride there too. I have never been someone who gave up or did not cope when situations were difficult.

“It is not now that I am going to start. I will be 31 years old. If I start again at almost 32, I can still have three, four good years by trying to stay as far away from injuries as possible.”

Pouille has already experienced plenty of difficult times in his career. In 2020, he spent a year on the sidelines after undergoing elbow surgery. He struggled for form when he returned and, in 2022, almost quit the sport.

The former world No. 10 has since been honest about his struggles with drinking and depression during this period. “I started to have a darker side and go into a depression that led me, after Roland Garros, in England, to sleep only one hour a night and drink alone,” he previously told L’Equipe.

But Pouille is now hopeful that he can return to competition in 2026 and still has goals he wants to achieve. “I would like to win a tournament again and play a second week in a Grand Slam. I would like to play again maybe one last time in the French Davis Cup team,” he noted.