“No, don’t worry,” replied the 21-time Grand Slam champion. “When I play sometimes my foot hurts. If you saw me every day you wouldn’t be worried. I always have pain in my foot, especially after playing a three hour game or a long training session. I quit walking a little badly.
“But I have a chronic injury that has no cure. It’s part of my life, and it’s the downside of not being able to finish the game early. Soon, I think I’m fine, physically speaking, but also speaking. Of my feet, he has to adapt to the competition, he has to adapt to the stress that matches like today have on me.
“In the short term, as I said, it’s fine, but I’m also conscious for tomorrow. It’s a bit more complicated because tomorrow I can wake up with more problems and we have to accept it and face it.”
Last year alone, Nadal suffered a back injury at the start of the season and was then forced to miss the second half of 2021 with a foot injury. That time out meant he couldn’t compete in Wimbledon and the Olympics.
All those ailments then made it all the more impressive that he was able to win his record 21st Grand Slam at the Australian Open in early 2022, on the way to a personal best of 20-0 at the start of a season.