Former tennis world number one Andy Murray says he just wants to get through next month's Australian Open without pain.

He'll play in his first Grand Slam event since having career-saving hip surgery this year.

Murray is curious how he'll cope with the endurance demands of five sets:

"I was asked what would be success in Australia and I don't know how I will perform - I'm not expecting to win the tournament - but if I can play a five-set match and get through and have no ill effects on the hip then that is success.

"Because I know I will be able to compete in the major tournaments without having to worry about it.

"I have played three-set matches and some long ones recently, but the best of five is an extra hour, hour-and-a-half on top of that so I will find out in Australia.

"If I can get through that tournament and get through some long matches potentially feeling good it would be a big positive."

Murray admits he considering retiring from the sport earlier this year:

"Asia was basically where I started to realise I can do this because at the beginning of that trip, literally two or three days before the first tournament in Asia, I was having conversations with my team.

"I was practising and I was like 'no, I am giving this until the end of the year and if I'm not winning matches and feeling better than I am now, I don't want to keep going.'

"I was putting a lot of effort in but my movement wasn't at the right level, but as I started to play quite a few matches it changed quite quickly and I thought I was a lot further away than I was and that was what a lot of guys in the team were saying to me.

"They were saying 'you are much closer than you think' and I won a few matches, started to feel better and maybe as well I gained more confidence in my hip. I stopped thinking about it in matches - which was quite a big step.

"At the beginning, you are thinking about it after every movement you make and that is not a good way to go into competing but now I am not thinking about it when I'm playing."