Nadal: "You can't accept waking up lame every day"

2022-06-06T18:34:39.446Z

The 22-major champion talks about the adversities of recent times after raising his 14th Musketeers Cup in Paris

Rafael Nadal (Manacor, 36 years old) receives EL PAÍS and other Spanish media in a Versailles room in a central Paris hotel, the day after winning his 22nd major and the 14th Roland Garros trophy in a splendid career that spans against all prognosis.

He does it on an armchair from which, once the conversation is over, he finds it difficult to get up.

He corrects the position of his legs and pulls his arms to reinforce the maneuver.

He walks the legend with difficulty.

The wear and tear of the previous day's finale has taken its toll on an eroded body that has withstood endless adversity and, above all, on the most watched foot on the planet in recent weeks.

On this occasion, pain prevails over tennis and success during the talk.

The athlete speaks, and so does the patient, through the mouth of the doctor.

Nadal looks for a solution.

Ask.

How are you?

Response.

Physically, the truth is that I am very well.

In this tournament I have played matches of more than four hours, but the next morning I have woken up well on a physical level.

Surprisingly, at this point and with my age, I don't have too many shoelaces.

But this last one has not been a normal night, because my foot hurt.

It happens when I wake up [when the anesthesia wears off] and after two and a half weeks taking loads of anti-inflammatories and painkillers practically every six hours, because there was no other option.

I've stopped drinking because I can't go on like this.

How is it possible to play with a numb foot?

You have to be clear about one thing: they do a remote sensory nerve block, because if your motor goes numb you can't move your foot.

They did it to me after an operation to avoid pain and you can't move it.

It is impossible.

He is out of control.

My sensory nerve hurts.

He is not a mathematician either.

In the end there are days when you fall asleep a little more down.

For example, in the final my fingers also fell asleep, the feeling was worse.

But at least with the ankle you're in control;

less, but somehow you still control it enough to be able to compete.

You have control of the foot, the thing is that you don't have any sensitivity and there is a little more risk when it comes to twisting the ankle.

But come on, I don't care if I don't have sensitivity;

for me it is Havana,

because I went from being lame to playing without pain.

Unfortunately, this cannot be prolonged in time.

More information

Nadal's incredible comeback to be the greatest

Are you optimistic?

Let's see what happens.

The objective is clear and consists of making a pulsatile radiofrequency in the nerve to try to achieve the sensation that I have when I play with my foot asleep, and maintain it permanently.

With remote blocks, it has been shown that I can play, so if this treatment works and leaves my nerve touched, and that pain sensation is permanently removed, it may not solve the problem, but you could continue playing and that is the goal right now.

How much do those frequent punctures hurt?

How much it hurts to get stuck with a needle... It depends on the place.

The nerve hurts less.

But it is bearable.

Because otherwise we wouldn't have done it.

Although doing this 20 minutes before hitting the track each day is not pleasant.

The punctures?

They don't scare me anymore.

I have been punctured to bore...

And do they scare you?

No, they no longer scare me.

Unfortunately, I'm used to that because they've punctured me to bore me... I'm used to it.

The athlete, who has suffered from Müller-Weiss syndrome since the beginning of his career – a degenerative foot disease with no solution for an elite athlete – reveals in this section of the conversation that in the second round he was “totally lame ” and that, if the treatment had not been rectified and the nerve finally infiltrated remotely, this latest trophy “would never have arrived”.

At the beginning of the year you recognized that you considered leaving tennis, after half a year without playing due to the injury.

Has he again been tempted to withdraw?

Does all this compensate you?

Compensating, it always compensates, what happens is that at a given moment, what does not compensate is that one does not feel competitive;

if you can't train, how are you going to compete afterwards?

And in recent months it has not been possible... I know that it is difficult to understand from the outside and that is why it is sometimes difficult to talk about it, but I and those who are around me on a day-to-day basis know what is there, and we must trust in this possible solution [the new treatment].

I am quite realistic, I am not very dramatic or impulsive, and from there I decide according to what can and cannot be done, and it cannot be continued like in recent months;

So let's try it.

If that works, the first one who wants to follow is me and also those around me, because we all have a good time doing what we do and enjoy.

Then let's see.

Nadal, during the interview at his hotel in Paris. BENOIT TESSIER (REUTERS)

At this point, what weighs more, physical pain or emotional pain?

I don't have any psychological pain.

If I don't have physical pain, I don't have any psychological pain.

But now you have that pain…

Yes, but I already knew I would have it.

The issue is not that he has the pain today;

Two weeks ago I was already very clear that when the tournament was over I was going to be in bad shape, and I have assumed that, it is very easy to assume.

The problem is day to day.

What you can't assume is that you can't train regularly because you wake up lame every day.

That itself becomes difficult to assimilate;

the rest is more complex.

How do you imagine tomorrow?

I imagine it the same as I have experienced it many times in my career, when I have had to be out of competition for months due to injuries.

I have always been happy outside of tennis.

It is not something that makes me lose sleep or cause me any fear.

I have and have always had many things that make me happy, beyond tennis.

On a physical level, what I have, I have.

I think that, as for the foot, they will be able to take away the pain in a pretty definitive way.

What happens is that to remove it I have to undergo an operation that consists of fixing my foot, and if I do, I won't be able to continue playing.

I don't care if I don't have sensitivity;

playing without pain is Havana for me

But, for example, could you get on your catamaran tomorrow without feeling the pain?

Without pain, no.

Last year I finished Roland Garros and I was lame for two and a half weeks.

When I came out of the match with Novak [Djokovic, to whom he lost in the semi-finals], I couldn't even go downstairs for two and a half weeks.

When I stop playing for a while, like after Canada last year [he then had to retire in Washington], I'm lame.

The first few weeks are bad, but if I stop playing tennis for a month and a half, my daily life is no longer a problem.

In the end there comes a time when it stops hurting, it bothers me, but it's not a pain like the one I feel when I'm training.

At least, you will always have Parcheesi, one of your great hobbies.

In some way, does it serve as therapy?

It depends on the day.

There are days when it is a counterproductive therapy, because I have to put up with Marc [López, who joined the technical team this season], who has no fucking idea [laughs].

But hey, we laugh.

Parcheesi has one good thing, and it is that you spend an hour and a half or two hours without realizing it;

In addition, it is also a way to let go of the little machines [he says, pointing to the mobile phones that are recording].

For me it is something positive.

At some point you are with the team playing without being aware of the mobile before the games or when you are in an airport.

It's just a distraction and a competition we have with each other, so we laugh.

We have an

annual

ranking .

And who goes first?

Now I don't know exactly.

I was going, but I think my father passed me without playing [as sometimes happens with the tennis list].

The last few days have been critical, but hey, we laugh, we get distracted.

It is a way to pass the hours.

A year ago, it seemed that Djokovic had the upper hand;

now you are the boss.

What will happen from here on?

Anything can happen, right?

If what it seemed like a year ago is not now, what it seems like now may not be either in a year... It is clear that Novak is the one in a clearer situation, because he has the level he has and he does not suffer physical problems;

Roger [Federer] is who he is, so you always have to expect something special from him, although we all know how difficult it is to come back and even more so at 40 years old... We'll see what happens.

I don't think about it much.

I didn't worry when we were tied or down, so I'm not going to worry now that I'm two up.

The only thing that worries me is being able to continue having the opportunity to compete.

I've always been happy outside of tennis, tomorrow doesn't keep me up at night

During these days there has been a lot of speculation about your foot and your future.

Somehow, there are those who have given it up.

Do you think you have been treated with the respect you deserve?

Uf, I never get into that puddle... In the end, just as I have also been praised a lot, I also understand that doubts appear about many things and I accept them, because I feel them too.

To be honest, I don't read everything, especially when I'm isolated in tournaments, because I have to make my way.

But in the end it is logical, because we live in the world of immediacy and the moment, and everything happens very quickly.

It is evident that these last months, in which I have been with a broken rib and then I arrived with zero preparation to Madrid and Rome, and in which Carlos has also coincided… [Alcaraz, champion in Miami, Barcelona and Madrid] .

In the end, he is a new face that brings a lot of positivity;

somehow, I understand that this promotion had to be done, but I make my way.

I'm of a certain age and I don't care too much about things that happen out there.

As a mere spectator, I couldn't be happier to have someone like Carlos in our country;

if then it is considered that due to the fact that by extolling one thing so much, the other is downplayed…

What is the value of this latest conquest, taking into account all the circumstances?

I think that at a tennis level it has an important value, because it has managed to beat very good people [among them, Aliassime (then 9th in the world), Djokovic (1st) and Zverev (3rd)].

And on a mental level too, because in the end, I always value personal satisfaction more than anything else.

After living what I lived in Indian Wells, with a broken rib, and after Rome, when after a

set

and a little more I was left lame... I knew I was going to be able to play the matches, because with my foot asleep you can play, but the difficult thing was having the ability to put all this aside and focus on tennis to play level I did.

That means that mentally I was fully prepared to take on the challenge.

What remains is that he has won a Roland Garros, which is perhaps one of the most difficult of my career and one of the most important.

I stay with that.

It is the first time that you have managed to win in Australia and Paris in the same year.

Would it be crazy to think about the Grand Slam, about the possibility of also winning Wimbledon and the US Open?

Yes, it is crazy.

And more so, as we are, but even being perfect it would seem crazy to me because it is something that no male player has done since Rod Laver [the Australian did it for the last time in 1969, and the German Steffi Graf, the last one who achieved the great poker, in 1988].

The one who came closest was Novak last year.

I think it's crazy to think about it.

I don't even consider it.

More than winning, I would sign to be able to play all four, taking into account how my foot is.

If he taught it, would we be scared?

If you don't record it I'll show it to you later without any problems, delighted, but you wouldn't like it... [he tells the journalists with the intention of doing it, although finally the anecdote is lost and he doesn't do it].

You would be scared.

Nadal, along with his wife, María, and his sister, Maribel. BENOIT TESSIER (REUTERS)

You came here with all those doubts, but in the end you have won again and there are now 14 Roland Garros titles.

Do you think that one day someone will be able to exceed the figure?

It seems impossible, very difficult.

I know how difficult that is and all the circumstances that have to be given for it to happen.

But in the end, yes I have done it myself, I guess it can be repeated.

I'm not going to be a super chosen one.

It is evident that many circumstances must occur, which in my case have occurred.

But hey, it will be difficult.

This edition, the French stands gave you extra love.

Have you felt that 'Come on Rafa!'

more than ever?

Because it wasn't always like that.

I think that the public here has behaved in an unbeatable way with me for many years.

This time perhaps it has been a little more special, but I think it is given because people have not been able to come to the stadium for years and we have had a super complicated time due to covid.

It was the first time that this new track, which is spectacular, could be filled, and that may have had something to do with it.

I understand that doubts appear about me and I accept them because I also have them

You raised your first Roland Garros trophy 17 years ago, in 2005. Since then, how has tennis changed?

Tennis has changed, like everything in this life... It is played faster and we have to adapt.

Before, a more classic tennis was played on clay, more like Casper [Ruud], and today there are fewer players with this type of tennis.

Even I don't play it anymore, most of the time I don't.

But well, in general things evolve in that sense, we all evolve and I myself have been changing, adapting my racket to have more power, for example.

In fact, this year I changed the weight and the strings;

I was always playing with 1.35 and now I play with 1.30.

For the weight I put more lead in the head, with the aim of trying to get a little more power.

And another thing, something that is already more unusual, is that I changed to the old racket two days before starting this tournament.

At the moment and despite all the setbacks, he is the player with the best overall record this season, in which he has won four tournaments, the two Grand Slams that have been played.

To what extent does it inject you with an extra appetite for victory?

Feeling competitive supposes energy, that is a reality.

If having everything I have, I didn't feel competitive, another rooster would crow, but I feel competitive and we are going to look for solutions.

You can follow EL PAÍS Deportes on

Facebook
and
Twitter
, or sign up here to receive
our weekly newsletter
.