"I hope he's going there to win it and, if he's going to do that, he's got to be 100 per cent healthy." Tim Henman has urged Andy Murray only to play at the US Open if he has fully recovered from his hip problem.
The Scot limped through his Wimbledon campaign before going down in the quarter-finals to American Sam Querrey.
Murray has not played a match since after pulling out of Masters 1000 events in Montreal and Cincinnati and there were major question marks about his participation at the year's final Grand Slam, which starts in New York on Monday.
But he travelled to the United States late last week and has been practising at Flushing Meadows, and the feeling now is much more positive.
Henman, though, has sounded a note of caution, saying: "With what he's achieved in his career, making fourth round or quarter-finals is not what he's about. With the troubles he's had injuries and health-wise this year, it would be silly to put himself even further back.
"If he plays, great, but his hip is obviously something that he's going to have to manage so I hope he really feels he can do himself justice.
"If we say he is 100 per cent, then there's no doubt he can win it. I think hard courts are probably his best surface. You look at his track record in New York, how well he's played in Australia, his record in Masters 1000s, and looking at how many injured soldiers there are out there.
"If he is healthy then he's definitely got a good chance."
Three-time major champion Murray is far from the only injury doubt, with Roger Federer, Marin Cilic and Milos Raonic also pulling out of last week's tournament in Cincinnati.
The US Open will definitely be without defending champion Stan Wawrinka, two-time winner Novak Djokovic as well as former finalist Kei Nishikori, who have all pulled the plug on their seasons because of injury.
And the 2004 semi-finalist at Flushing Meadows said: "I think this is just a very unfortunate scenario that has evolved all at the same time.
"If you look at the number of tournaments the top players play now, they actually play less. When I was playing, it was much more normal to see top guys with 25, 26 tournaments, now it's 16, 17, 18.
"Wawrinka and Djokovic are older. If it was a whole series of younger players that were suddenly saying I'm going to take the remaining five months off, that would not be good.
"One of the biggest challenges is making sure you stay injury free. It's been an unfortunate hard-court stretch. Cincinnati last week was very tough to see."
Henman also rates new world No 1 Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, winners of the year's first three Grand Slams, as favourites for the title in New York.
"I didn't necessarily think he'd get back to number one but I never write these true greats of the game off," said Henman of Nadal.
"He's only 31 and the way he's played this year, the rankings don't lie, he's been absolutely phenomenal. He thoroughly deserves it and he's such a great ambassador for the game.
"He's won in New York before. I think this has been probably his toughest event, the ball normally is a little bit quicker and a bit tougher for him to control with how much spin he puts on, but he's definitely playing well enough and will have the confidence and the knowledge, and, for me, he goes in as the favourite along with Federer.
"For Roger to play seven, best-of-five-sets matches will be a challenge for his body but he seemed to overcome it pretty well in Melbourne. They're just incredible and I think it's naive to be surprised by them."
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