"I thought I had to quit tennis": Nadal on dealing with incurable foot injury at Wimbledon

Rafael Nadal seriously considered the possibilty of quitting tennis because of his foot injury that gaev him a lot of pain whenever he played tennis.

It was there at Wimbledon and while he was reluctant to speak about it in the past, Nadal is far more open about it now. Feeling better overall and still competing without pain is one of the reasons why. In a recent interview, Nadal confirmed the suspicion that taking pain medication to play is not something new and he's done it plenty of times:

“The truth is that I have done it many times after Wimbledon because the injury is incurable and when the nerve starts to hurt you have to do it again. I have to thank Mario, my regular anaesthetist in Barcelona, and Dr. Ángel Ruiz-Cotorro, who were the ones who put me in contact with David Abejón, specialist in the Pain Unit, to start a treatment that has drastically changed not my career, which in the end is secondary, but my personal life."

Nadal is now able to play without pain thanks to a new treatment that left him without pain and it's been a great source of joy not only professionally but also in his personal life. There have been days when he had trouble walking due to the pain:

"Now I’m much happier, beyond winning or losing on the track, because I was lame. I played tennis with a lot of anti-inflammatories but I was lame all day. I thought I had to quit tennis because I had lost my vitality and was a sad person most days.”

In terms of future plans, Nadal plans to travel to Australia on December 26th as his first match down under will be on the 31st in the United Cup:

"It is likely that I will travel on December 26 because on the 31st I debut in the United Cup. Sharing a team with my teammates makes me excited and for sure it will be a fun experience. At least I will play two matches before the Australian Open which will come in handy and hopefully we can advance further but it is clear that the draw is complicated. You have to be realistic but I’m going to try to win or at least get to the level I need to be competitive in Melbourne.“