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 The Romanian withdrew from the Brisbane International last week
because of the injury, which also affected her 2015 campaign, and
she called the trainer during her second-round match.
Halep, who was given a first-round bye, said the pain was coming and
going but she produced some of her best tennis in the deciding set
on the way to a 6-4 2-6 6-1 victory that set up a quarter-final
against Czech fifth seed Karolina Pliskova.
"When you have pain you always get scared because you don't know
what is going to happen," she said after her win.
"I felt actually yesterday during the practice same thing. Five
minutes pain, five minutes without pain.
"I don't know exactly what this is. MRI showed that I have just an
inflammation and I can keep playing, so I will do my best and I will
try to be there, to stay focused."
The 24-year-old is one of four leading women players heading to the
Australian Open, which begins in Melbourne on Monday, under an
injury cloud.
World number one Serena Williams (knee), fifth-ranked Maria
Sharapova (arm) and number three Garbine Muguruza (foot) all
withdrew from matches in the last week.
Halep said before the clash with the 34th-ranked Garcia she was fit
but she looked anything but during her medical time out after the
Frenchwoman stepped up the aggression to take the second set.
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Halep, though, shrugged off the complaint to storm through the third
set, reeling off five straight games and recording her first win of
the year when Garcia netted a straightforward mid-court forehand.
"I needed matches to see if I can stay during the match until the
end with my achilles," she said.
"I did well today. I'm happy that I could finish. I am happier that
in the third set I didn't feel the pain. It means that I can keep
working and keep playing with tough opponents."
(Writing by Patrick Johnston in Singapore and Sudipto Ganguly in
Mumbai, editing by Ed Osmond)
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