Rafael Nadal has revealed the extraordinary physical toll behind his legendary tennis career, admitting he spent years competing through serious injuries in order to stay at the top of the sport.
According to BBC Sport on Friday, in a new Netflix documentary series, the 22-time Grand Slam champion reflected on the sacrifices he made to extend his career and maximise his success.
“I’ve had to make decisions about my health, where you are on the borderline between right or wrong. “But if I hadn’t explored all that, I probably would have had 10 fewer Grand Slams. I’m not saying one or two, I’m saying 10 or 12. This is the reality,” he said.
Nadal burst onto the scene in 2005 by winning the French Open on his debut, defeating Roger Federer in the semi-finals before claiming the title at just 19 years old. But he says that the same year also marked the beginning of long-term physical issues.
“That was the origin of all my problems,” he said, referring to a foot injury that developed into the rare condition Mueller-Weiss syndrome.
“Tennis became a race against time,” Nadal explained. “Always having the doubt in my head of, ‘how long can I last with this foot?’ I never knew how long my career would last.”
“I always thought, ‘maybe it’s the last year, so there’s no time to stop.’”
Nadal revealed that playing with specialist insoles allowed him to continue competing, but also created further complications across his body.
“My knee was destroyed. The tendon basically had a hole in it,” he said. “Having to play with an insole throughout my entire career threw the rest of my body out of whack.”
He also described how managing pain became part of his routine throughout his career.
“I went through a couple of long processes of injuries. “But I was ready to accept that moment, to tolerate the frustration and keep working with hope and passion,” he added.
One of the most extreme moments of his career came at the 2022 French Open, where Nadal used targeted anaesthetic injections to numb the nerve in his foot completely.
At the time, he played without feeling in his foot, but still went on to win a record 14th Roland Garros title.
Former world number one John McEnroe reacted with disbelief: “He doesn’t feel his foot, and he’s winning this? What are you going to tell me next? He’s going to play blindfolded, and he’s going to win it also?”
Across his career, Nadal won 22 Grand Slam titles, finishing just behind Novak Djokovic in the all-time men’s standings, and forming one of the greatest rivalries in tennis history.
Despite the physical cost, he insists his motivation never faded.
“The suffering was less than my passion and my happiness for what I was doing,” Nadal said.
His reflections underline the extraordinary sacrifice behind one of sport’s greatest careers—and how close he came to walking away far earlier than he did.
Read the full article here
