Familiar injuries raise painful prospect that end is near for Nadal

For nearly the entirety of his two-decade career, Rafael Nadal has been a picture of calm on the tennis court. Nobody has endured as many moments of abject tension in the final rounds of the biggest tournaments yet navigated them while betraying so few negative emotions, shrugging off mistakes and despair, remaining steadfastly positive.

But on Thursday night in Rome, for once his emotions were written all over his face. As he limped and grimaced around the court, barely able to run during his loss to Denis Shapovalov, he continually looked up at his team in the stands. He shook his head, he cursed his bad luck and he spent moments at the change of ends with his head buried in his hands.

The source of Nadal’s frustration was one of the most familiar sensations he has experienced in his career. Eighteen years ago, as he contested his first full season on the tour as a 17-year-old, Nadal suffered from a stress fracture in his foot. The injury would reveal Müller-Weiss disease, a degenerative foot injury that weakens the navicular bone in the foot. Unhelpfully for an athlete in an 11-month season, it worsens with physical exercise.

Over the years, Nadal has had to invest significant time, effort and anti-inflammatories into managing it. Its effect on his career has sometimes been underreported but it has left a continuous, visible mark. It was the reason why he spent six months out last year and retirement skipped across his mind, and it is unmistakable in the limp that sometimes accompanies him in press conferences and around the grounds.

Everyone is dealing with something. Injuries are a common facet of sport, a natural result of athletes pushing their bodies past limits that few bodies are truly built to withstand.