Bernard Tomic says he has no idea if he’ll be fit for Australia’s most important Davis Cup tie in years later this month in France.

Tomic was planning to meet his doctor on Wednesday to determine the extent of a groin strain that forced him to quit after just one set of his first-round Australian Open clash with Rafael Nadal on Tuesday night.

Australia face France in La Roche sur Yon in their long-awaited return to the Davis Cup World Group for the first time since 2007.

Australian captain Pat Rafter – who is playing doubles at the Open with long-time team spearhead Lleyton Hewitt – will be sweating on Tomic’s availability for the challenging indoor clay-court tie.

Tomic, though, is offering no guarantees.

“Haven’t really thought about that yet. I have no idea,” the 21-year-old said.

“Hopefully I’m ready for that. That’s very important to us and me.

“I’ll go with my doctor, just see what’s wrong, potentially what it could be.

“Who knows? Some people say it’s a few day thing, could be off a few days. Some other people say it could be a week or two, don’t muck around with it.”

Tomic said he first suffered the injury during a practice session on Monday but hoped to get through his match against Nadal after taking a bunch of painkillers.

But he felt a twinge in the opening game and called it a night after dropping the first set 6-4 to the world No.1.

“It’s tough playing Rafa with two legs, let alone one,” he said.

“I was putting no stress on my leg and it was still hurting when I had to run for any balls,” he said.

“I just felt like, If I continue playing, something worse can happen, cannot play maybe for a few months. I don’t want to do that.

“I have to protect myself as much as I can.

Apart from the injury concern, Tomic’s – and also Hewitt’s – first-round exits denied the pair any chance of an early-season rankings rise.

Both are targeting Wimbledon in June as their grand slam priority in 2014 and are eager to climb into the world’s top 32 to secure an all-important seeding for the grass-court major.

Tomic, though, is set to fall from 57th to around 66th in the rankings after failing to defend third-round points collected at last year’s Open, while Hewitt will remain just outside the top 40.