Rafael Nadal’s recovery will take much longer than expected. The Spanish tennis player announced on Twitter, Thursday, April 20, his package for the Masters 1000 in Madrid, which will take place from April 25 to May 7. This recovery, which is slow to arrive, casts doubt on his participation in Roland-Garros (May 28-June 11), which he won 14 times, a record.
The Spaniard is therefore taking extra time to treat his injury, contracted in January, during the second round of the Australian Open. He then lost to the American Mackenzie McDonald (6-4, 6-4, 7-5), before being diagnosed with a grade 2 lesion of the iliopsoas muscle of the left leg.
The player immediately announced that this injury would require “six to eight weeks” of convalescence. His return to training, during the month of March, was going in the right direction. But after fourteen weeks of absence on the circuit, concern is growing for the left-hander: “The situation is not what we expected. All the medical indications were followed, but the evolution was not the one that had been announced to us at the start. », he regretted.
“A wounded man who plays tennis”
To hope to return to the circuit quickly, Rafael Nadal is betting on new therapeutic support: “I was training, but a few days ago we decided to change course a bit, do another treatment and see if things improve to try and move on. » A new twist for one who has been accumulating physical glitches for several years, to the point of having been designated as “an injured person who plays tennis” in 2019, by his uncle Toni Nadal, in 2019.
In 2022, the Spaniard had already postponed his return to clay, his favorite surface, due to a cracked rib detected a few months earlier, after the Indian Wells tournament. Arriving at Roland Garros with few references, he also had to deal with intense pain in his left foot, linked to Muller-Weiss syndrome. He then received injections to play and win the tournament, before performing operations to desensitize his foot.
This new absence due to injury follows two other withdrawals of the 33-year-old player, at the Masters 1000 in Monte-Carlo, then at the ATP 500 in Barcelona. These packages make the Spaniard’s participation in the next edition of Roland Garros more and more hypothetical: “I can’t give a timetable, because if I knew, I would tell you, but I don’t know. This is the current situation. »he explained on social networks
For the “Taurus of Manacor”, there are now not many opportunities to prepare on clay, before the Grand Slam in Paris. His presence at the Masters 1000 in Rome, which will take place from May 10 to 21, will be scrutinized.
