Paris: France's Davis Cup hopes against Austria were dealt another blow on Monday with the news that Jo-Wilfried Tsonga would be unavailable due to a hip injury.
Already, Guy Forget's team have been decimated by the withdrawal of top-ranking French players Gael Monfils who will be out for up to six weeks with an injury to his left wrist.
Tsonga, th world number 17, said on his website that he had been struggling with the hip injury since the start of the year and that he would be unable to play in the Davis Cup where rubbers are over the best of five sets.
On top of that, Tsonga said that the fact that the World Group first round tie would be held on claycourts meant that he risked aggravating the injury.
"I will have to see how the injury responds to treatment and based on that maybe I will need to have an operation. But that would put me out of action for two to three months," he said.
The tie will be hosted by Austria in Vienna from March 4-6. France reached last year's final losing 3-2 to Serbia in Belgrade after being 2-0 ahead.