Nadal's Team Was In Doubt About Comeback Because Of Slow Progress Reveals Coach

Monday, 18 December 2023 at 16:45

byZachary Wimer

Rafael Nadal is nearing a return to tennis in the coming weeks, but it's something that almost didn't happen, according to his coach, Carlos Moya.

Hip injuries are very complicated because they're a part of the body used all the time for various things, making recovery quite hard. It's even worse when you have a complicated injury like Nadal had, which required a surgical intervention.

Nadal, of course, first attempted a conservative approach away from the operating table but ultimately had to concede that it wasn't working. After undergoing the surgery, progress was slow, really slow, according to his coach Carlos Moya.

Yes. When you go through an operation like this... In the end, entering the operating room is the last straw you hold on to, and I say this from experience, to try to come back and retire on the court. Knowing those risks, he tried it because it was the only way he had if he wanted to return.

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And when we start and have been playing for a month and a half or two, and we see that the progression is very slow... you don't know if it is slower than expected or not because it is the first time we were in a situation like this.

Thanks to recent developments, we know that Nadal will be in Melbourne, which is great news, but there is still a lot of doubt in the air. Nobody really knows how his body will react when he starts playing competitive tennis regularly.

Will it hold? Will something else pop up? Nobody knows, and Moya is asking himself the same questions Nadal's fans are.

But you do see that you have your doubts, and in the player's head there are also doubts: will the body respond? Will it be able to withstand the loads? There are many questions that arise. It hasn't been a bed of roses, far from it. It has been a quite twisty and winding road, with many curves.