Additional knee surgery will keep Federer out of the game.

The US Open is scheduled for later this month, and one of the current greats of the tennis scene, Roger Federer, who is tied with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic on 20 career grand slams, was slated to compete. Unfortunately, his stellar career has recently been hampered by complications related to his knee. Federer needed to have two operations performed on his knee after the Australian Open in 2020, and was forced to back out of this year’s French Open due to concerns about his knee, which happened again before the Tokyo Olympics.

Roger Federer announces he will have knee surgery.

He will miss the US Open and be out "many months" pic.twitter.com/WbpB9KQ6qU

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) August 15, 2021

Despite the upcoming US Open, Federer decided the writing was on the wall: he needs another knee operation. “I’ve been doing a lot of checks with the doctors, as well, on my knee, getting all the information as I hurt myself further during the grass-court season and Wimbledon,” Federer said in an Instagram post Sunday.

“Unfortunately, they told me for the medium to long-term, to feel better, I will need surgery, so I decided to do it. I will be on crutches for many weeks and then also out of the game for many months.”

“I’ve been doing a lot of checks with the doctors on my knee… I hurt myself further during the grass-court season and it’s just not the way to go forward.

"They told me… to feel better [that] I’ll need surgery. I decided to do it."

Get well soon, @rogerfederer! 💪 pic.twitter.com/SVn0B95VMo

— ATP Tour (@atptour) August 15, 2021

In spite of the setback, Federer is optimistic about playing again. “I want to be healthy. I want to be running around later, as well, again, and I want to give myself a glimmer of hope, also, to return to the tour in some shape or form,” he added.

“I am realistic, don’t get me wrong. I know how difficult it is at this age right now to do another surgery and try it.”