Rafael Nadal spoke to the Spanish media at Roland Garros, including Mundo Deportivo, a day after winning what would be his fourteenth and final Musketeers Cup. He played the entire tournament with an anesthetized foot. He had to rely on crutches to ease the pain. The swelling made it impossible to put the foot in the shoe. He moved around barefoot.
The left foot rebelled again. After a struggling five-set comeback against the Croatian Ivan Ljubicic In the final of the Madrid tournament, then at the Rockódromo, indoor and hard court, in the fall, he felt pain that did not subside.
There were months of anxiety, of medical consultations, with his father Sebastià as squire, trusting his family doctor, Ángel Ruiz-Cotorro. He discovered that he was suffering from Müller-Weiss syndrome in the scaphoid. A degenerative congenital malformation that was avoided at the end of 2005 with insoles, which change the natural biomechanics of the tennis player.
He saved the race. Some specialists consider that with this injury an athlete is not suitable to continue in the elite. But if Rafa Nadal and his team have a characteristic, it is the fight against adversity.
His knees have taken a serious toll, a body that now needs rest that also frees the mind of Rafa Nadal, tired of fighting a series of injuries since the pandemic, whose rest has been a blessing for on his knees, although it was quite arousing. excruciating leg pain.
A grade 2 injury to the iliopsoas of the left leg ended up activating the physical and psychological alarms of the Balearic Islands, which in 2022 became the champion of Australian Open and Roland Garros, But along the way he had to overcome a broken rib, two tears in the stomach and excruciating pain in his left leg, which was resolved first with anesthesia to win in Paris and then with a new radiofrequency technique that works.
That hip injury affected the tendon, causing him to visit the operating room on June 3, 2023, his birthday. The result was good, but it turned out to be the beginning of the end. It was enough to fulfill the goal of not having to retire in a press room, but in competition, in the Final at 8 of Davis Cup 2024in Malaga from November 19 to 24.
He continues to live in pain. “I don’t remember the last day I played without him,” Rafa Nadal reiterated when asked. Feet, knees, wrists (he was forced to withdraw from Roland Garros in 2016), muscle tears in the thighs and stomach area. A body that has been punished because it has changed its biomechanics, changed its natural movement.
It will always be worth it, because “I have lived a dream come true,” Rafa Nadal said in his statement.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Robert Maynard, and I am a passionate journalist with experience in sports writing. For the last few years, I have been writing for Today Times Live. My main focus has been on sports-related stories and features. With my strong background in journalism and extensive knowledge of the industry, I am able to provide readers with well-crafted pieces that are both informative and engaging.
