Former ATP player Paul McNamee chimed in on Rafael Nadal's situation, claiming that the Spaniard is likely to end his career if he fails to win the French Open.
The Spaniard's comeback looked pretty good early on. He was playing very solid tennis in Brisbane, winning a couple of matches. A disaster came not long after his return, as he got injured in his third match back, which kept him away from tennis even today.
He briefly returned to Las Vegas for the Netlifx Slam against Carlos Alcaraz but immediately withdrew from the Indian Wells Open. The goal is to try again for the clay season, which is coming up shortly, so we'll know soon enough how things really are.
For former player Paul McNamee, the situation is quite clear. According to him, Nadal is clinging to the hope of winning the Roland Garros, and that's the only reason why he keeps pushing for a return. If he fails to do that, then McNamee is sure that Nadal will retire.
"Let’s call it as it is. Rafa continues while he believes he can still win more Roland Garros’s, & why not? If he does, he’ll keep playing. For me he won’t quit while he has a chance to equal Djokovic on 24. If he doesn’t win RG24, the end of a magnificent career becomes imminent."
It's obviously a theory by McNamee and should be treated as such, but you can't really dismiss it. You can't really dismiss anything when it comes to Nadal as everything is possible.
Some outcomes are more likely than others but we have no idea what will happen. It doesn't look very great right now but in two months time he might be lifting the Roland Garros trophy and who knows what might follow after that.