Nick Kyrgios has quelled talk of his imminent retirement after a newspaper column said he was considering giving up professional tennis.

The 28-year-old has been working as commentator during the Australian Open as he continues his recovery from injury.

In an opinion piece titled “I’m contemplating retirement and won’t be available for the Paris Olympics” published in Nine newspapers in Australia on Wednesday – and purportedly written by him – he suggested his time in the sport could be coming to an end: “The reality is, there is a part of me that knows my time in the sport may be over. And I’m OK with that.”

But on Eurosport on Thursday, he said would not be retiring.

“Of course I don’t enjoy being injured and I don’t enjoy rehabbing and stuff, and there have been times where it’s like, is this worth it?,” he said. “But of course I’m going to come back, I’ve got a protected ranking of 21 in the world singles, 11 in doubles.

“I’m going to come back. I’m going to give it a go.”

The Australian enjoyed perhaps the best season of his career in 2022, reaching the Wimbledon final where he lost to Novak Djokovic in four sets. But he hasn’t been on tour since June, and only played one match during the entire year as he battled multiple ailments.

“I’ve had some brutal injuries over the last year, obviously had knee surgery twice, battled on through that then had wrist surgery,” he said.

Although he has not taken the court as a player at Melbourne Park, he has been prominent as a commentator for ESPN and Eurosport, and even provided the official post-match interview after Djokovic beat Taylor Fritz in the quarter-final on Tuesday.

Djokovic said Kyrgios was “looking good in that [commentary] booth, but looking better here, hopefully with a racquet also soon. We miss Nick, come on guys, show him some love,” he said.

On Thursday, Kyrgios joked that maybe he was just waiting for the 36-year-old world No 1 to end his career before he made a return.

“Maybe my tactic was just to let Novak retire first, work out, get in the best shape of my life and come back,” he said. “But I’m definitely coming back, so the ‘retired’ rumours are ridiculous.”