Konta, 28, said the problem is similar to tendonitis and she has been managing it throughout a year in which she played three Grand Slam quarter-finals.

She plans to travel to Australia on 30 December to play Brisbane and Adelaide before Melbourne on 20 January.

"I can only listen to my body," said Konta, who is ranked 12th in the world.

"I'm not giving myself any deadlines. I will be ready when I'm ready."

Konta was ranked 38th at the start of 2019 and went close to falling out of the top 50 for the first time since October 2015 - before rediscovering her form on clay, a surface she had previously struggled for wins on.

That culminated in a run to the French Open semi-finals in June - losing to unseeded Czech teenager Marketa Vondrousova - before she reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon and the US Open.

She has not played since losing to Ukrainian fifth seed Elina Svitolina in New York in early September.

"I have been carrying a knee problem since the first week of the year and it was basically a case of just managing it through the season," Konta told reporters from several national newspapers at the LTA's National Tennis Centre in Roehampton.

"Once we got to the grass it got worse, and then at the US Open it felt significantly worse.

"I have definitely booked my flight and I want to be on that plane. I am certainly hopeful that I will be ready."