McEnroe Pulls Out of Wimbledon : Nagging Back Injury Is Reason for His Withdrawal

John McEnroe, saying he didn’t want to play if he was not 100% healthy, withdrew from Wimbledon Monday because of a sore back.

The three-time Wimbledon champion, a first-round loser in his last two Grand Slam appearances, said he was “tired of walking onto the court worried whether I shall be able to give it my best effort.”

Wimbledon officials said that McEnroe’s withdrawal would not affect attendance but that his absence would be a loss.

“All things being equal, one would like to see all the top players participating,” Chris Gorringe, chief executive of the All-England Lawn Tennis Club, said. “But they’ve got to be fit. Otherwise, there’s no sense in them sacrificing themselves in any tournament.”

The announcement that McEnroe would skip the world’s most prestigious tournament for the second year in a row came as organizers were announcing the seedings. Based on his computer ranking, McEnroe would have been seeded No. 8. He skipped last year’s tournament as part of a six-month sabbatical from tennis.

But in a telex to the All-England Club, McEnroe said that the back problems that have plagued him in recent months were too much to overcome.

“There is no reason for me to come to Wimbledon unless I’m 100% fit,” McEnroe said. “I have not been able to train since I returned from Paris, and I’m tired of walking onto the court worried whether I shall be able to give it my best effort.”

McEnroe complained of injuries when he walked off the court in the final of the World Team Cup at Dusseldorf, West Germany, last month. Two days later at Paris, he was eliminated in the first round of the French Open by unseeded Horacio de la Pena of Argentina.

Peter Lawler, a representative for McEnroe, said in the same telex to Wimbledon that McEnroe “continues to be plagued by back problems, which have caused him trouble all year. His physicians have advised him to take at least four more weeks off.”

The decision means that McEnroe also will miss the post-Wimbledon Grand Prix tournament at Gstaad, Switzerland, Lawler said. His return probably will come in the United States’ Davis Cup matches against West Germany in mid-July.