Simona Halep revealed in Romania that her knee injury is a very serious one and also confirmed that she has been thinking about retiring lately.
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Shortly after clearing her name last March and being allowed to return to action, the former world No. 1 picked up a knee issue.
As a result, the two-time Grand Slam champion was limited to only four tournaments in her comeback year and she was also forced to miss this year's Auckland and the Australian Open due to the same injury.
But on Tuesday, Halep will officially start her season when she meets Lucia Bronzetti in the Cluj-Napoca first round.
When talking to local reporters at the Transylvania Open, she didn't hide that her situation is far from perfect.
Halep: I think about retirement, I'm old and I have injuries
"Of course I think about retirement, and it crosses my mind very often. I'm old, I have injuries that I can't recover from. The knee is not recovering," the 33-year-old said, via Romanian publication Golazo.
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"I've always said that tennis isn't the whole of life. Of course, I have many more desires and goals in this life, after tennis.
"Everything I've done in tennis has been extraordinary, I've worked for it and I feel like a very accomplished tennis player. I would like to do something else, not just tennis.
"My knee is still giving me trouble because it's a cartilage tear and it's not easy to manage. Right now it doesn't hurt, but I haven't had any official matches either. That's the problem."
Unless Halep manages to play consistently in the next couple of months, she may simply decide that it's not worth it and call it a career.
With two Grand Slam titles under her belt and having been the top-ranked player in the world, the Romanian will certainly go down as one of the best from her generation when she decides to retire.
