Abu Dhabi: Former world number one Novak Djokovic admitted Tuesday his six-month absence from tennis has taught him never to take his career for granted, describing his injury agony as a "roller-coaster ride".


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The 30-year-old Serb has not played since Wimbledon in July when a long-standing elbow injury forced him to shut down his 2017 season.


As a consequence, the 12-time major winner saw his world ranking slip to 12, his lowest place in 10 years.


"It`s been a real roller-coaster ride for me for a year and a half with this issue. I`ve never had surgery in my life, I`ve never had any major injuries that kept me away from the tour for such a long time," Djokovic told Sport360 in Abu Dhabi.


"I never missed a Grand Slam in my career. It was a big decision, a big call to make. I couldn`t play anymore, there was no choice. It was like, that`s it, you can`t lift your arm."


Djokovic will return to the court in Abu Dhabi at the pre-season Mubadala World Championship which runs from December 28-30.


He is then due to kick-off his competitive season as top seed at the Qatar Open next week before launching a bid for a seventh Australian Open crown.


Having added mercurial former tour player Radek Stepanek to a coaching team spearheaded by Andre Agassi, Djokovic only started hitting again in Monaco four weeks ago.


"I`ve learned a lesson because I really want to avoid getting to that stage of an injury ever in my career after this," Djokovic added.


"And it was a great lesson to learn to be honest. It was not easy for me to be absent for so long.


"I can`t wait to get back on the competition level but it was a great experience for me to have. And it was a somewhat necessary experience because I got maybe too comfortable with not having major injuries."