Elbow, shoulder, left hand and wrist, back, right forearm (when playing with left hand), abdominals, ribs but also knees, ankles, thigh ... "He's an injured man who plays tennis," summed up his uncle and historic coach Toni Nadal in April 2019, according to comments reported by the Spanish newspaper Cinco Dias.

According to his doctor Angel Ruiz, the player has "wonderful genetics" which he combines with a mind like no other and above all with "exceptional resistance to pain which would be 9 on a scale of 10".

"The majority of players would have retired, not him," insists the doctor in an interview published in June 2019 in the Spanish daily El Mundo.

In 2009, it was with an abdominal tear that he approached the US Open.

"As it only hinders the serve and not really anything else, I had played and lost in the semis against Del Potro. But the tear had gone from 7mm to 27mm, that was a bit stupid of me “, commented Nadal.

The record longevity of Rafael Nadal Kenan AUGEARD AFP

In 2014, it was with almost a hole in his left hand, due to a huge blister, that he appeared in the semi-finals of the Australian Open against Roger Federer... whom he beat in three sets before losing in the final to Stan Wawrinka.

On several occasions, injuries kept him away from the circuit.

Always, until then, he came back.

Not just to play, but to win.

Several strong comebacks

Thus, at the end of the 2008 season, he suffered from tendonitis in his knee.

He gave up at Paris-Bercy and gave up the end-of-year Masters (mid-November).

All that to come back two months later at the 2009 Australian Open and make Federer cry after inflicting on him one of the most crushing defeats of his career after a 4:30 match.

In the semis, the Spaniard had already fought 5:14 to eliminate Fernando Verdasco.

The first long break in his career came in 2012 when he ended his season after losing in the second round at Wimbledon, again due to knee pain.

Rafael Nadal, winner of Roger Federer, savors his triumph at the Australian Open, February 2, 2009 TORSTEN BLACKWOOD AFP/Archives

Returning to the circuit in February 2013, he won ten tournaments that year, including Roland-Garros and the US Open, as well as five Masters 1000.

But his most brilliant return, because perfectly unlikely at over 35, is that of 2022.

Eliminated by Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals of Roland-Garros in the spring of 2021, Nadal was confronted with a sudden awakening of pain in his left foot, suffering for years from Müller-Weiss syndrome, a degenerative necrosis of the bone. scaphoid which causes a bone in the foot to no longer be irrigated normally and gradually die.

This disease is "chronic and incurable", in the words of the player who has had to manage it since he was 18 years old.

Positive for Covid-19 in December 2021, he started the 2022 season with more than approximate preparation.

"Vital prognosis engaged"

Winner of the Melbourne tournament, he followed up with a phenomenal and historic victory at the Australian Open: by going back two sets in the final against Daniil Medvedev, he brought the record for Grand Slam titles to 21.

"This injury would prevent 99% of humans from moving at the speed at which it moves," said the president of the Spanish Society of Sports Traumatology, Doctor Rafael Arriaza, to the daily La Voz de Galicia at the end of January.

Rafa Nadal, who arrived ill at the Australian Open, will align the successes, as here against Adrian Mannarino, January 23, 2022 Aaron FRANCIS AFP / Archives

"Rafa hits the ball much better than before, but he runs much less well than before. As long as the results are there you don't always see it, but for me it's very obvious. And all of a sudden, it will drop so physically that it will no longer even allow him to hit as he can, and the decline is rapid", however warned the Frenchman Gilles Simon in an interview with AFP on May 9.

In Indian Wells, it was a stress fracture in the ribs that probably cost him the final after a victory in the semis against the phenomenon Carlos Alcaraz.

With his preparation for the clay season largely cut short, he arrived in Rome where he gritted his teeth but ended up giving up in the round of 16.

"I think he has unimaginable pain when he gets up in the morning or goes off the pitch and I used to say that when Rafa starts to wince, to say that he's in pain somewhere, for for us, it would be life-threatening …”, according to former French player Fabrice Santoro, now a consultant for Prime Video.

© 2022 AFP