‘Not happy’
“In a second period, an old injury to the labrum of his left hip was also regularized, which will surely help the better evolution of the tendon.“added the statement, after the operation carried out in a Barcelona clinic on Friday night.
“The normal recovery process is estimated at five months, always taking into account respecting the biological times of said structure,” concludes the statement, which indicates that Nadal will begin his rehabilitation in a few hours.
Hours later, from Roland Garros, his doctor, Ángel Ruiz Cotorro, spoke before a group of journalists: “He is not happy, now he must assimilate this whole situation. There is a period of acceptance and then up. Rafa accepts it quickly and he will start tomorrow quietly forward for recovery”.
He then specified that he will now be “10 days in fairly limited rehabilitation.”
“He’s going to start swimming in the pool right away, in three or four days, and cycling even tomorrow. Then he has to heal the tendon, during the first six weeks, and then we’ll have to see how it goes with the tests we do,” he said.
Then he wanted to specify the recovery periods: “It is very difficult to say five months to be playing at 100%, perhaps then another month will have to be outlined so that it takes even more shape. But we are in those periods of time”
Nadal, who turns 37 this Saturday, has not competed since he injured the psoas in his left leg – a muscle in the abdominal cavity and in the front part of the thigh – in January at the Australian Open.
Be fit in 2024
Initially the injury was going to keep him away from six to eight weeks, but his loss was lengthening and on May 19, at the time he announced that he would not be at Roland Garros. Nadal announced that he would spend some time without training to recover.
The Spaniard then stated that he wanted to put “a full stop” in his career before facing in 2024 what will possibly be his farewell to the professional circuit.
I don’t deserve to end up like this
“This would be my objective: try to stop to try to probably face the last year of my sports career with at least the guarantees of being able to enjoy it,” he explained during a press conference at his tennis academy in Manacor.
Despite his recurring pain, and a few last years that he described as “complicated”, the Spaniard will fight to say goodbye wielding his racket.
“I don’t deserve to end up like this, I think I’ve worked hard enough throughout my sports career so that my end is not here today at a press conference,” said the Spaniard.
Nadal did not want to set a date for his return, but he left the door open to try it in the Davis Cup at the end of the year, something that seems to be complicated by the new recovery periods.