Rafael Nadal injury update emerges as he is backed to make swift return by former world No 2
Rafael Nadal is set to rest for around a week following the injury setback he suffered in Brisbane before resuming training, according to a report.
Former world No 2 Alex Corretja believes Nadal will want to return to action as soon as he is ready physically and does not expect him to wait until the European clay-court season.
Nadal withdrew from the upcoming 2024 Australian Open due to a hip injury he suffered in his three-set quarter-final defeat to Jordan Thompson at the ATP 250 tournament in Brisbane on Friday.
As reported by Spanish publication Diario de Mallorca, Nadal will rest for a week before restarting his training, having undergone an MRI scan the day after his loss to Thompson. The scan confirmed the injury was a muscle issue and not something more serious.
In his first two singles matches in his comeback tournament, the 37-year-old comfortably saw off Dominic Thiem (7-5, 6-1) and Jason Kubler (6-1, 6-2) with impressive performances.
The Mallorcan had looked set to triumph against Thompson to book his place in the semi-finals, but he was unable to convert the three match points he created in the second set. The 22-time Grand Slam champion then left the court to receive treatment when trailing 1-4 in the third set.
Prior to Brisbane, Nadal had not played a competitive singles match since losing to Mackenzie McDonald in the second round of last year’s Australian Open due to a hip injury. The former world No 1 underwent arthroscopic surgery to treat the psoas muscle in his hip in June 2023.
Corretja declared that he feels his great compatriot will look to play tournaments again as early as possible given his lack of matches in the past year.
“My feeling is Rafa wants to play whenever he’s ready. If that means that this is before Indian Wells, he will go to Indian Wells. He’s not going to say, ‘Oh I’m going to wait until clay’,” the Spaniard told Express Sport.
“Because no one secures that he is going to be healthy for clay, no one is telling you, ‘If you wait for the clay, it’s better.’ You never know, clay is also pretty demanding. It’s long matches, physically it’s tough, movements are tough.
“It’s obvious that on hard courts for the joints it’s a little bit risky because it’s a little bit harder. But as soon as he is ready to practise, we will see him. He will say again, ‘Okay I’m getting back to practice’ and he will put a small goal to go.
“If he’s ready, maybe he’s ready to go to some of the South American tournaments on clay like Buenos Aires or so. But for that, he needs to be healthy. If he’s healthy, he would like to be on court as soon as possible.
“I don’t think he’s going to wait for the clay-court season because he’s been out for such a long time I don’t think he can wait in his academy just practising.”
In a recent interview with Eurosport, Corretja expressed that he felt Nadal’s setback early in his comeback was understandable.
“It’s certainly a setback that could happen. After so many months without competing, it is logical that muscularly you may feel some discomfort,” the two-time French Open runner-up said.
“The important thing is that it is not in the place where the big injury was made, that would be something to take into account and would perhaps be more worrying. I believe at the moment that if Rafa recovers, it doesn’t have to affect him mentally.
“He has realised that his level has grown, that he is back to more or less where he wanted to be and now the only thing we have to hope is that he can recover, play a few more days and return to compete in the tournaments that he wants.”
