Rafael Nadal's 'motivation' key to his injury management and longevity, says top physio Stephen Mutch

Rafael Nadal's concern for Alexander Zverev's ankle injury was obvious. Suffering from a chronic foot injury himself, the Spaniard knows the agony an injured state can cause. Wearing a worried look, Nadal empathised with Zverev, who was writhing in pain on the Roland Garros clay as the doctor checked on him. A few days after his 14th French Open triumph, the 22-time Grand Slam winner was at the doctor's clinic himself. In the lead-up to the clay-court Grand Slam, Nadal's chronic injury, the Mueller-Weiss Syndrome in medical terms, flared up at the Rome Masters. It's an injury that Nadal has been managing for years and one that kept him on the sidelines for most of last year. But his drive to excel is perhaps unmatched, which is what fueled Nadal's record-making comeback at the Australian Open. He defeated a red-hot Daniil Medvedev in the final to win his 21st Grand Slam trophy -- going past Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. But Nadal's favourite clay season this time didn't begin like it ended. In Rome, the foot didn't cooperate and Nadal lost to Denis Shapovalov in the round-of-16 clash. On top of that, he had a rib fracture. "Everybody knows in the world of tennis that the preparation (for the French Open) was not ideal," Nadal told Eurosport. "I have been outside of the practice courts for one month and a half with a stress fracture on the rib. And then I have the foot that is something that stays there all the time. In Rome, it was very difficult. But I've had my doctor here (at Roland Garros) with me and we played with no feeling in the foot."

Rafael Nadal (AFP Photo)With an injury at the back of his mind, Nadal defeated Novak Djokovic in the French Open quarterfinal before prevailing over the unfortunately injured