Jack Draper’s Instagram account disappeared, adding another layer of uncertainty to a season already defined by severe physical setbacks. The former British No. 1’s account, which carried more than 500,000 followers and was active as recently as last week, now returns only an error message when accessed. “Sorry, this page isn’t available. The link you followed may be broken, or the page may have been removed,” the page reads.

The Cincinnati Open and Britain’s LTA had recently tagged Draper’s account in posts, but there was no clear sign of trouble at that time before it went dark. The Brit and his team haven’t given any reason for the move, and it feels counter to his sponsors’ interests, who depend on this engaged audience to justify their business relationships with him. 

That’s especially true of his clothing partnership with Vuori, which is said to be worth several million British pounds per year. Draper has thus far provided limited on-court exposure in an extremely light tennis schedule this season. The former world No. 4 left Nike and signed the deal with Vuori in August and debuted the kit in the mixed doubles US Open alongside Jessica Pegula, a fellow Vuori-sponsored athlete. Since then, Draper has featured in only 18 tour-level matches. 

The account’s disappearance comes during one of the most difficult stretches of Draper’s career. During the first-round loss earlier this month in Montreal, he broke down and cried during the game, struggling with the chronic bone-bruising injury in his left arm that has hampered his career for more than a year now.

The defeat was more crushing because he was cruising in the second set and had the forehand quality rating of 9.4, and then the pain came back, his serving speed reduced, and the Frenchman Terence Atmane sealed the match in three sets. He looked similarly restricted in a subsequent loss to Martin Landaluce at the Cincinnati Open, unable to sustain his level, losing in straight sets.

There is still no official word on whether Draper will feature at the US Open, where he is currently scheduled to play mixed doubles alongside Pegula the week before the main draw begins. However, a leading specialist has raised major concerns about his physical capacity.

Injury expert warns of Jack Draper’s recovery

In a harsh evaluation of Draper’s condition, leading injury prevention and athlete welfare expert Stephen Smith stated that bone bruising is a very difficult injury to recover from. 

“I wouldn’t say it’s uncommon. What we saw at the Canadian Open was genuinely difficult to watch. He’s been navigating that bone bruising injury in his left arm for a significant period, and bone bruising is notoriously slow to resolve,” Smith said. 

“What would happen if you keep overloading that is it could end up resulting in a stress fracture as well. You can’t accelerate that biological process too much. You manage your load around it,” he added.

Smith pointed specifically to Draper’s dropping serve speed as clear evidence something was physically restricting him during matches. “The drop in his serve speed during the match, they were pretty visible data points that he was having an issue. When a player’s serve speed falls that much from their baseline, that’s a flag that something is limiting their ability to generate force through the kinetic chain.” 

“For his comeback to continue, I think the priority has to be honest load monitoring, not just how the arms feel day to day. There would need to be very, very serious quantification of load, and not just time on court, but the actual physical demands, speeds, impacts, changes of direction, racket speed,” Smith concluded. 

With that context, mixed doubles at the US Open could be the more feasible option in the short-term for Draper, allowing him to play something that is less physically demanding but at the same time give some exposure for sponsors and gain some confidence for himself as well. That possibility also remains under scrutiny. The tennis world will find out if Draper is fit to compete when the US Open mixed doubles tournament officially begins on August 24, 2026.