"You are talking about a GOAT": McEnroe hopes Nadal goes out when he wants instead of being forced after Australian Open exit

John McEnroe hopes that Rafael Nadal leaves tennis on his own terms as opposed to an injury making it impossible for him to continue playing.

We already saw an injury sort of force a GOAT into retirement as Federer's knees were unable to recover well enough for him to play competitive tennis further. McEnroe hopes that doesn't happen to Nadal as he injured himself at the Australian Open. He's had a long list of injuries and his final three grand slam runs have all been cut short by injuries.

Speaking about that, John said:

“Obviously, this is a guess, and you know, anyone that comments on this is doing the same thing," McEnroe told Eurosport regarding Nadal's injury. "My suspicion would be because hard courts, you know, especially on the hip, would have more of an impact and are harder to bounce back from.

McEnroe continued:

“My hope is he goes out when he wants to go out, not when we want him to go out. You are talking about a GOAT - greatest of all time - type of athlete. You saw from Murray that he doesn't want to go out on injury-like terms, you know, he wants to go out on his terms when he's healthy and competing and it's just like, ‘I can look in the mirror and know I have done everything I could and that's enough' Rafa, from what I've heard, wants to keep playing. You know, he loves the competition, he loves the process, and he loves the sport and we love him for that. But if the body doesn't hold up and he feels like he can't get to that type of level health-wise that he needs to, to win majors, then I think he'll quit."