Rafael Nadal has provided a crucial update on his hip injury ahead of the French Open, with the Spaniard preparing to participate in consecutive clay-court events.
Nadal, who missed nearly the entirety of the 2023 season due to injury, sustained his latest setback at the Brisbane International in January. He had initially aimed for a return at the Qatar Open in February but was unable to recover sufficiently to compete.
The 37-year-old then aimed for a comeback at Indian Wells in March but once again withdrew due to ongoing injury concerns, sparking speculation about his retirement.
Nadal has already confirmed that 2024 is likely to be his final year in tennis before he joins fellow great Roger Federer in retiring from the sport.
Since making those remarks, Nadal has indicated that he may not be sufficiently fit to participate throughout the 2024 season.
He has already confirmed that he will play two clay-court events before the action gets underway at Roland-Garros.
Nadal will make his return to competitive action at the Monte Carlo Masters from April 8-14 and then will immediately head to Spain for the Barcelona Open.
Speaking ahead of the clay-court season getting underway, Nadal said: "I will do my best to try to start the clay season, which is my goal, I am working for that and striving for that goal."
‘But I don’t dare to say anything about what might happen because lately, it has been difficult for me to make predictions, unfortunately.
"I’ve not stopped training at any time. I’m trying all the time. I feel fine, I just haven’t managed to follow the schedule I would have liked to. Hopefully things can change, but as you can imagine, I can’t say because I don’t know myself.
"It doesn’t matter whether I’m optimistic or not; I’m a realist. For the last year and a half or two it’s been impossible for me to compete, so the first objective is to try to compete and I’m going day by day.
The Spaniard doesn't feel ready to start playing a tournament at this level, with the little training background he had
"If I had to be optimistic or negative, I probably wouldn’t even be trying. It’s a long time, I’m very old and I’ve got a very long career behind me. At the end of the day, I try not to be one thing or the other, I try to go day by day, do the work I have to do to give myself opportunities and we’ll see how long we can try.
"I didn’t want to start a tournament coming from where I came from, with no guarantee of being able to advance to at least the levels that I think I need to demand of myself to try and start a tournament," he concluded.
