On the totem pole of depressing British sporting moments, last week's sight of Andy Murray reduced to playing pat-ball tennis ranks high. The 24/7 monitoring of Andy's condition let's call it a wrist watch clocked a new mark in his 6-2 6-2 defeat at the Montreal Masters by the Italian qualifier Fabio Fognini, someone a fully operational Murray would have swatted aside.

After the encouraging signs of the previous day, when the British No 1 one routed Robby Ginepri in his first match for three months, Murray's subsequent clear lack of confidence in testing his ailing right wrist with a full-blooded forehand came as a surprise to many of those hoping for a complete restoration of strength and mobility in time for the US Open a fortnight tomorrow. Even the young man himself seems uncertain of the way forward, saying at one moment that what he needs is more match play and then speculating that he might be better off on the practice court.

The decision taken by Team Murray is to play this week's Masters Series event in Cincinnati, where he faces Marcos Baghdatis in the first round. A win could then put him up against Tim Henman, whose first-round opponent will be Juan Ignacio Chela. In the third round awaits Roger Federer, who lost to Murray at this event 12 months ago.

What may sound strange to his fans is Murray's conviction that he cannot damage the wrist further by playing rather than resting. "I just need to keep building confidence on it," he said. "I'll know there is something seriously wrong if I'm not fine by the US Open."

Britain's Davis Cup captain, John Lloyd, shares Murray's opinion about playing through the problem. Lloyd says that while fearing "it may take Andy a bit longer than people have thought, he is obviously desperate to play again and I don't think actually playing will do him any more harm. It's not like putting a plaster on him and saying,'We need you out there'. It might not be pretty for a couple oftournaments, but you have to play through it."

That said, Lloyd classes a wrist injury as "right up there as the worst of the lot. It becomes very psychological, because you use it on every shot and even when the doctors say it's OK it is very difficult to accept their verdict, because in the back of your mind there is the memory of that terrible pain you suffered when the injury happened.

"It was remarkable Andy won his first match in Montreal. Now it is a question of how long it takes him to overcome the psychological aspect of feeling free to open up and whack the ball.

"I once had a very bad elbow problem and it hurt me every time I hit a forehand. I had to stop playing for six months, and coming back was a very gradual business. The fear factor of hitting a huge forehand took me a long time to overcome because I could still feel twinges. It is not easy to get over that feeling."

Lloyd's clear concern is for Murray to be fully recovered by the time of Britain's Davis Cup World Group play-off against Croatia at Wimbledon from 21 to 23 September. "I spoke to Brad [Gilbert, Murray's coach] the other day and he says two weeks. I have also been on the phone to Andy, but I don't want to be phoning every 24 hours. They already have enough people doing that. There is still a fair amount of time before the Davis Cup; the longer the better as far as I am concerned. But the chances are Andy will come into that tie having played a lot fewer matches than he would have liked. But you can't do anything more than hope."

Bill Norris, the ATP's medical services administrator, says "a lot of Andy's problem is not structural, it is an overuse problem. Sometimes tennis pros practise or play too much, they don't give themselves enough rest."

So Andy, that is the question. To rest or to play? Good luck with the decision. And the outcome.