Credit: Dan Istitene/Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Tennis great Rafael Nadal said he played with “limitation” for his whole career after breaking his foot in 2005
- Nadal said he believes the foot injury was “the original of all my problems in my body”
- Nadal told BBC the “key” to his success was that his “passion” for tennis was greater than his physical “suffering”
Rafael Nadal spoke candidly about the affects his 2005 foot injury had on the rest of his career.
During a video interview with BBC published on Friday, May 29, the 39-year-old tennis star said, “I had to deal with all the issues that I went through since I was a very young professional tennis player. After 2005, due to my injury on my foot, I was playing all my career with limitation, with a chronic injury.”
Nadal said the injury “really affected” his whole body and that he believes it’s “the origin of all my problems in my body.”
Credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty
“Because of that, I had to stay over-positive, over-determinated, always ready to try to find a solution to keep being competitive, to try to find a way always to be on the court again,” Nadal continued, noting that he’s gone through “a long process of injuries” in his career.
“But I think I was ready to accept that moment, to tolerate the frustration and to keep working with hope and passion,” he said.
Nadal went on to say that “passion” was the “key” to his success: “For me, the key was, the suffering was less than my passion and my happiness for what I was doing.”
Nadal broke his left foot in 2005 during the Madrid Open and was later diagnosed with a rare degenerative condition called Mueller-Weiss syndrome, per the BBC. He then went on to win 22 Grand Slam singles titles before his retirement in 2024.
Nadal also told the BBC, “Tennis became a race against time,” as he dealt with injuries during his career. “Always having the doubt in my head of, ‘How long can I last with this foot?’ I never knew how long my career would last. I always thought, ‘Maybe it’s the last year, so there’s no time to stop.’ “
At one point, Nadal began using an insole to support the foot, but that led to other problems, including tendinitis in his knee, he told the outlet.
“My knee was destroyed. The tendon basically had a hole in it,” Nadal said, adding, “Having to play with an insole throughout my entire career threw the rest of my body out of whack.”
Nadal is the subject of a new Netflix documentary, RAFA, streaming now. According to the series’ description, the four episodes will “chronicle the final chapter of Nadal’s career, exploring his sacrifices, battles with chronic injuries, and his emotional retirement.”
Read the original article on People