Rafael Nadal’s uncle confirmed that the Spaniard had been struggling with constant pain since 2005

Nadal recently announced his retirement from professional tennis in a video shared on the social media platform. The former world number one struggled with fitness issues in the later stages of his career and missed six of eight Grand Slam tournaments in the last two years. The legendary Spaniard returned to the tennis court earlier this year after a break of almost 12 months. While still on the sidelines last year, he announced he would retire from professional tennis at the end of the 2024 season.

Nadal’s uncle Toni was recently quoted in a report in which he revealed that the 22-time Grand Slam winner played in pain for most of his career. He also explained that since 2005, Nadal has not been able to complete a single training session without painkillers.

“Rafael has gotten used to playing in pain, but I told his father that if we stopped every time he had problems, he could take five or six Grand Slam titles with him. Since 2005, he has been virtually unable to finish a practice session or play a Grand Slam match without taking painkillers. The problem he had was that he got used to playing in pain and saw that he came out of it mostly stronger. He thought it would be the same this time, and what happened is that now it came to his hip after the knee.