“No, don’t worry,” replied the 21-time Grand Slam champion. “When I play, sometimes my foot hurts. If you see me every day, you wouldn’t worry. I always have pain in my foot, especially after playing a three-hour game or a long training session. walking a little badly.
“But I have a chronic injury for which there is no treatment. That’s part of my life, and that’s the downside of not being able to finish the game sooner. In the short term I think I’m fine, physically but also speaking about my feet, it has to adapt to the competition, it has to adapt to the stress that competitions like today have on me.
“In the short therm, as I said, it’s fine, but I’m also aware for tomorrow. It’s a bit more complicated because tomorrow I may wake up with more problems and we have to accept it and face it.”
Only last year, Nadal suffered a back injury at the start of the season and was then forced to miss the second half of 2021 with a foot injury. That time-out meant that he was unable to compete in Wimbledon and the Olympics.
All those ailments made it all the more impressive that he won his record-breaking 21st grand slam at the Australian Open in early 2022 on his way to a personal best with a 20-0 season start.