FIRE IN THE BELLY MISSING

When the guys get toether in San Remo for a training camp this week to prepare for the Davis Cup final against France in Nice, it will probably kick in that I will not be there.

To represent your country is especially exciting. But having been sidelined since the end of August with a torn rotator cuff in my right shoulder, I am struggling to become motivated.

Not being ablet o play or even practise, I have found I am not missing tennis at all.

I can understand completely where Scotty Draper is coming from. He is yet to work out whether he wants to play again after the death of his wife, Kellie. My situation is nowhere near as traumtic, but I have had a lot of time to think about what tennis means to me.

I think when the Davis Cup boys gather, and when I do step up the training, I will regain my motivation.

I am doing three 30 minute rehab sessions a day, with a couple of days off and, even though it does not sound overly taxing, its pretty full on.

The rule, though, is that as soon as I begin to struggle with it, I back off. I still tend to have my good days and my bad days. When the bad days come along, I simply back off. Being unable to practise or work out strenuously has caused me to lose about four kilograms. I usually weigh about 88 kg. Now I'm down to 84 kg. As with the motivation, the weight will come back once I start exercising again.

Tennis aside, one of the things I have really missed is golf. With the arm now out of the sling and getting stronger, I have at least been able to do some putting and chipping this week.

It is still too early to predict whether I will be able to play the Australian Open in January.

I want to be there, but I must be careful. I have been able to kick the footy around a bit and I will spend a bit of time in the surf this wekend to help it along a bit more.

Instead of playing in the Davis Cup final, I will be cheering for the boys - and realising how important it is for a couple of blokes who may not even make the court.

Andrew Ilie's promotion to the squad was reward for his hard work and claycourt abilities, and - as unpredictable as Andrew can be - I still think he is one of our best clay courters. He loves the stuff and was close to playing the quarter final against the US in Boston.

Andrew has been to a couple of Davis Cup ties in a support role and has fitted in well.

I spoke with Newk (John Newcombe) last week and if anything happens to Lleyton Hewitt or Mark Philippoussis, Andrew and Richard Fromberg are a couple of very capable claycourters to fall back on. I think the boys can get the job done from December 3-5. Frommy has a great Davis Cup history, having twice played in finals, so he knows what to expect.

Only wish I was there too.

Our champion doubles combination, Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge, have warmed up for the Davis Cup with a clean sweep of their group at the the $2.26 million ATP doubles world championship in Conneticut.

The Woodies will play top-seeded Indian pair Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes in today's semi-finals,while Australia's Sandon Stolle and Zimbabwe's Wayne Black will meet Canadian Sebastien Lareau and American Alex O'Brien.

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