PRESS CONFERENCE: Nadal speaks with media following RG final win
Rafael Nadal will know in two weeks whether he can play Wimbledon, according to Spanish tennis federation doctor Angel Ruiz Cotorro.l vu
Nadal underwent a pulsed radiofrequency treatment on his foot in a bid to play the grass-court Slam, which starts just three weeks following his record-extending 14th triumph at the French Open.
“Rafa is following the process, and the recovery is good,” Ruiz Cotorro told Spanish radio. “In two or three days we will look at the effects. In four days we will put him on court and evaluate the way the treatment is evolving.
“If there is any discomfort following treatment, we will have to look at whether he can play Wimbledon.”
The 36-year-old has a condition known as ‘Muller-Weiss syndrome,’ a deterioration of the bone in the foot.
Nadal told press in Paris that he’d played Roland Garros with pain-killing injections prior to each match, but does not want to repeat that in other tournaments. The radiofrequency treatment is designed to block the sensation in his foot in a similar way.
The problem has been present since the beginning of Nadal’s pro career but he experienced increased pain following the break caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which forced him to take five months off in 2021. It started again in Rome prior to the French Open as he was coming back from a six-week injury break.
According to Ruiz Cotorro, lack of competition aggravates the condition.
“This is an injury that rest is not good for, it adapts little by little to the load,” he said. “That same thing happened with the rib, five weeks not stepping on court.”
Nadal was treated in Barcelona and has now gone back to Mallorca.
