Now Nadal faces the same fate as Federer
The 36-year-old also misses Madrid, it will be close for Roland Garros. His hip injury just won’t heal. In a video he turns to his fans with a serious expression.
That hurts: Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open when he injured his hip and still played on.
Photo: James Ross (EPA)
You know it from Roger Federer. In the late autumn of his career, nothing was heard from the Swiss for weeks, even months, until he got in touch again via video: with bad news such as recent knee operations. Again and again he provided his messages with a spark of hope for a comeback until he finally announced his retirement on September 15, 2022.
Rafael Nadal’s fans are now being similarly teased. The 36-year-old played his last game on January 18 in the second round of the Australian Open against Mackenzie McDonald. In tears, he struggled against the American over the court to the bitter three-set defeat. He had suffered a hip injury during a jerky movement in the second round and could hardly move after that. Nonetheless, he finished the game.
The forecasts were good, but now Nadal has to cancel tournament after tournament. And in six weeks Roland Garros is coming up.
The examinations at the time revealed second-degree damage to the lumbar-iliac muscle of the left leg. This runs from the hips up into the lower back and is the most important muscle for hip flexion. In other words: nothing works in tennis without him. But the prognosis of the doctors was good. They predicted Nadal would be back on tour no later than the start of the clay-court season in April. But now he has to cancel tournament after tournament
After a long silence, he now turned to his fans with a longer video message: With a serious expression, he announced that after Monte Carlo and Barcelona he would also have to cancel the tournament in Madrid, which is due next week. Only a good six weeks remain until Roland Garros (from May 28th). At his favorite tournament, which he won for the 14th time last year, he would have liked to attack again. Now he’s in danger of missing out. And then the sand season would be over.
“The recovery time should have been six to eight weeks,” Nadal said in Spanish in the video. “Now we are at the 14th week.” He followed all the doctors’ instructions, but the healing still didn’t go as planned. In mid-April, Nadal trained on sand, videos of which circulated. Now he has stopped again. “A few days ago we decided to change course a bit, have another treatment and see if things improve,” he said.
“I can’t give a timetable,” Nadal continued. His hope is to play at least one tournament on clay before Roland Garros. Rome is still pending on May 10th, the week before the start of the French Open will be played in Geneva and Lyon. Probably no athlete has returned from as many serious injuries as Nadal. But in the meantime his capacity to put up with setbacks seems to have been exhausted. Also mentally. He had already indicated that at the Australian Open.
The foot, the abdominal muscles, the hips – more and more parts of his body are reporting.
Nothing has worked for the Spaniard since July 2022. After suffering his way to victory at Wimbledon in the quarterfinals against American Taylor Fritz despite a torn abdominal muscle before withdrawing from the tournament, he lost 8 out of 13 matches. He triumphed in Roland Garros last yearhaving his left foot removed by personal physician Angel Ruiz-Cotorro stunned with several injections before every game. He then switched off the affected nerves in the foot using radio frequency therapy.
The foot, the abdominal muscles, the hips – the 22-time Grand Slam winner and young father keeps coming up with new body parts. Tennis fans must fear that his next video will be announcing his retirement. The trepidation has begun.
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