Rafael Nadal Tennis Injury

So Rafael Nadal has withdrawn injured from a Grand Slam tournament – again. Andy Murray marches on to the final, relatively injury free.
This isn’t the first time that the trainers and physios have had an impact on the outcome of an important match, this report from last year’s U.S. Open:

INJURY DAY:

Juan Martin del Potro ran into a wall. Gilles Simon tweaked his knee. Jose Acasuso had left knee pain. And when Rafael Nadal flopped to the ground to receive treatment on his abs, his opponent, Nicolas Almagro, figured he’d call the trainer, too. Injuries ran rampant at the U.S. Open on Sunday. None appeared to be too serious.

Simon and Acasuso each retired from their matches while trailing. Del Potro was fine _ just a little flesh wound _ while Nadal, who missed Wimbledon with bad knees, said he was getting sick and tired of talking about injuries, but that the strained abs that have been bothering him since last month won’t keep him out.

I saw Rafa call, so I prefer to call at the same time, Almagro said of the dueling injury timeouts in Ashe Stadium.

Trainers came out and worked on his back and 20,000 fans got to watch both tennis players laying on the ground, getting massages.

What a difference a rubdown makes?

My tennis was the same, before the trainer, after the trainer, Almagro said.

This year’s Australian open also showed that the 5 set epics such as this one: can also be decided by the trainer.

Potential causes of this could be:

• poor scheduling of the tournaments
• players playing when already injured due to financial pressures
• tournament sponsors wanting their pound of flesh with big names having to attend
• poor conditioning- lack of foundation training from an early age
• gamesmanship- the opportunity to halt momentum and refocus mentally

The male tennis player Grand Slam champions of the future could be the ones that manage to remain injury free, the ones with staying power. This makes Roger Federer’s recent accomplishments all the more remarkable.

Read our Guide to Tennis Injuries Here