Murray withdraws from Queen's quarter-final to save his thumb for Wimbledon

The 21-year-old Scot decided he would be too restricted to take on the power of Andy Roddick at Queen's Club, but immediately confirmed that he will play his scheduled exhibition match on Tuesday at Stoke Park.

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'I'll play a match at the Boodles Challenge next week,' he said. 'I'll try to get as much practice as possible and I don't think it should be a problem for Wimbledon.'

Murray's latest injury - his first of significance since last year's major wrist trauma - is a sprained right thumb suffered during his third-round victory over Ernests Gulbis on Thursday.

As he feared, it became more painful overnight and despite managing an hour's practice yesterday lunchtime, he felt it was not comfortable enough to tackle the fearsome serve and ground strokes of Roddick.

Murray said: 'I woke up this morning and couldn't pick up my pillow and was struggling to pick up my phone. I could hit most shots decently in practice but I couldn't hit a backhand volley and when I hit a slice it was very sore.'

'I had a scan, I haven't pulled anything, I just sprained it. It's not terrible but it's too sore to play a match. I wasn't going to damage it further if I played today, so I think I would still have been OK to play Wimbledon.'

Before the All England opens its gates a week on Monday, Murray will have one more match at Tuesday's exhibition, having managed two games against the injured Sebastien Grosjean here and two hours against Gulbis.

He also managed to get in two doubles matches and does not believe he will enter The Championships at Wimbledon underprepared.

'I've played so many matches in my life that it's not so much the match practice that's important, it's more getting used to the movement,' added Murray.

'A lot of guys don't play a tournament before the Australian Open. Federer didn't play anything before Wimbledon last year. It's more getting yourself in physical and mental shape rather than the match practice, I think.'