Former Grand Slam finalist dismisses drug barbs aimed at Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal produced a minor miracle to win the French Open last summer, despite admitted he had no feeling in his foot heading into the final against Casper Ruud. 

The 36-year-old was pictured on crutches after winning his 14th French Open title and he was very open about the treatment he received to get through his latest final in Paris. 

“It’s obvious that with circumstances that I am playing (with), I can’t and I don’t want to keep going, so the mindset is very clear,” Nadal said after the final against Ruud.

“I was able to play during these two weeks with extreme conditions. I have been playing with an injections on the nerves.

“That’s why I was able to play during these two weeks, because I have no feeling in my foot.

“Everybody knows how much this tournament means to me, so I wanted to keep trying and to give myself a chance here.

“But it’s obvious that I can’t keep competing with the foot asleep.

“So that’s the thing that we are planning to do the next week. It’s going to be a radiofrequency injection on the nerve to try to burn the nerve a little bit and create the impact that I have now on the nerve for a long period of time.

“That’s what we are going to try. If that works, I’m going to keep going. If not then it’s going to be another story.

“And then I’ll ask myself if I am ready to do a major thing, a major surgery that doesn’t guarantee me to be able to be competitive again take a long time to be back.

“Hopefully it works and can take it out a little bit the pain that I have. If that happens, let’s see if I am able to keep going for the grass season.”

Nadal went on to play at Wimbledon, but pulled out of his semi-final against Nick Kyrgios after a fresh injury setback.

Cynics have questioned Nadal’s version of events and find it hard to believe he could win a Grand Slam final playing a foot that he admitted was numbed to the point that he could no longer feel it.

Now former French Davis Cup star Arnaud Clement has told Eurosport that Nadal’s success should not be viewed through suspicious eyes following his Roland Garros heroics.

“I never asked myself the question in relation to Rafael Nadal, especially after the last Roland Garros, everything he did,” Clement told Eurosport, as reported by Sportskeeda.

“In addition, he even almost made it public (about his treatment). So at some point, there are rules, we follow them or we go beyond them, but in no case, Rafael Nadal was on drugs, I believe. I have absolutely no doubts about the ethics of this player.

“It’s not because a player is particularly physical or athletic that he is doped. You have to be careful with this kind of shortcut.

“We could also see players who were taken for doping and we said to ourselves, ‘but no, not him, it’s weird’, because it’s not the physics we imagine for a doped guy.”

The discussion comes after Fernando Verdasco’s suspension following an anti-doping rule violation has set the tennis tongues wagging over Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUE) in the sport.

The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) confirmed on Wednesday that Verdasco tested positive for methylphenidate at ATP Challenger Tour event in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in February.

The former world No 7 accepted the positive result, but told the ITIA it was as a result of medication prescribed by his physician to treat his ADHD, in accordance with a TUE.

Verdasco was hit with a voluntary two-month ban, which runs until January 2023, and he has since been granted a new TUE by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

READ MORE: Rafael Nadal bids emotional farewell to long-time coach