Rafael Nadal failed to defend his championship at the Australian Open, after he fell to Mackenzie McDonald in the second round with a score of 6-4, 6-4, 7-5. It’s one of the toughest defeats for the Spaniard, but it was clear he injured himself and almost didn’t finish the match.
Nadal, who was looking to extend his record of 22 major titles, hurt his left hip running for a ball at 3-4 in the second set. Last season, Nadal dealt with several injuries, such as abdominal tear that he suffered in Wimbledon, a fractured rib in Indian Wells, and the foot injury he had during Roland Garros.
After the Australian Open match, Nadal expressed that “Sometimes it’s frustrating. Sometimes it’s difficult to accept. Sometimes you feel super tired about all this stuff in terms of injuries.” However, what exactly is he dealing with? Check out the last updates on his state of form.
Rafael Nadal explained his hip injury on Twitter (Update)
Rafael Nadal confirmed on Twitter on Jan. 19th that he has an injury on Iliacus psoas of his left leg (the muscle that stabilizes the pelvis and allows a correct hip flexion). He said that he will be resting and in anti-inflammatory physiotherapy to treat the injury. He also confirmed that he will be out between 6 and 8 weeks estimated.
Also at the post-match press conference, Nadal revealed that he had felt a problem in his hip before the game: “It has been a couple of days like this, but nothing like today in that movement. I don’t know. We’re going to start talking about that now, but I don’t know what’s going on, if it’s muscle, if it’s [the] joint,” he said.
“I have history in the hip that I had issues with. I had to do treatments in the past, address a little. Was not this amount of problem. Now I feel I cannot move,” he said. Fans saw that he barely could run at the end of the match, after asking for a medical timeout.
He also revealed why he decided to keep going despite the pain: “I considered all the time stopping, but I didn’t ask the physiotherapist at the end. I have to know myself. And I tried to keep playing without increasing the damage. That’s it,” Nadal said. “I was not able to hit the backhand at all. I was not able to run for the ball. But I just wanted to finish the match.”
