Toni Nadal is confident that his nephew Rafael Nadal will appear at Wimbledon this year, despite his ongoing foot injury.
While Toni is hopeful the 14-time French Open champion will be fit to compete at SW19, he stressed that a lot depends on the results of this new treatment, with the Spaniard playing through the pain barrier for a number of years.
“Wimbledon starts in less than two weeks, so let’s see if my nephew is there or not. I think that he will be and that the treatment goes well,” he said in quotes published by Eurosport Spain.
“He wants to take advantage of the good sporting moment that he is going through and that has led him to be the winner of the two Grand Slams.
“He has had to overcome many difficulties and is still there despite having already won many things and being very successful.
“Since 2005, he has been playing with a lot of pain to the point of sometimes being unable to finish a training session.”
Toni stressed that it will be at least a few days before the results of the treatment are revealed, with the world no.4 facing a race against the clock to be fit in time.
Nadal is no longer his nephew’s coach after the duo parted ways in 2017, and now tutors Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Aliassime came face-to-face with Nadal in the third round at this year’s French Open, a fourth-round match where he was pushed all the way and eventually won 3-6 6-3 6-2 3-6 6-3.
Meanwhile, Rafa himself admitted his surprise at being able to win the French Open again considering his injury struggles, making the achievement even more remarkable.
“If I didn’t believe it, I wouldn’t be here,” he told Eurosport after winning in Roland-Garros.
“But of course, it’s been a big surprise. Especially as everyone knows in the world of tennis that my preparation was not ideal.
“I have been outside of the practice courts of the tour for one month and a half with a stress fracture on the rib, and then I had my foot injury which stays there all the time.
“My doctor has been here with me and I played with no feeling in my foot due to an injection in my nerve – my foot was asleep. That’s why I was able to play.”
Nadal was quizzed about the number of injections he had received during the tournament, to which he replied: “It’s best that you don’t know!”
