Australian captain Lleyton Hewitt says a collarbone injury forced Nick Kyrgios to pulled from the team's lineup to face Canada in the Davis Cup.
Fans were up in arms after it appeared Kyrgios had been pulled last-minute from his tie, where he was expected to face Vasik Pospisil in the opening rubber.
John Millman was drafted in however, and went down to his Canadian counterpart 7-6 9-7 6-4, before the Jordan Thompson and John Peers also went down in the decisive doubles finale.
Whilst at first it was thought Hewitt had taken a punt and chosen to rest world Kyrgios, after Tennis Australia officials said the world no. 30 had not been nominated, he told reports after the matchup he'd in fact been injured.
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"Nick woke up this morning with a problem. It was with his collarbone and he was unable to play," Hewitt said post-match.
"John [Millman] came in and did his best, but we are all very disappointed to be out.
"We didn't really have a choice. He [Kyrgios] couldn't play.
"Earlier today we found out. So Johnny had to step up to the plate.
"He (Kyrgios) had a collarbone injury. I think it was similar to what he had at Laver Cup time. That's just the way the cards fell.
"It's been pretty tough I guess trotting back out the last three nights as well. To Johnny's credit, he went out there and left it all out on the court."
Leaving it all out there for his country.
— TennisAustralia (@TennisAustralia) November 21, 2019
Bring on the deciding doubles.@alexdeminaur | #GoAussies | #DavisCupMadridFinals pic.twitter.com/ml46nrp6vf
Following Millman's loss, Australia's top men's player Alex de Minaur fought to peg the tie back, claiming a resounding 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 win over fellow youngster Denis Shapovalov.
With the Canadians forced to field Shapovalov and Pospisil for the doubles tie as well, Peers and Thompson were expected to be too strong.
The Aussie pair went down early however, losing the opening set 6-4, and despite setting a 3-0 lead in the second set, suffered a major collapse, losing six of the following seven games to go down to the Canadians.
