After two months of absence due to physical problems and which forced him to miss important events such as the Olympic Games in Tokyo and Wimbledon, Rafael Nadal made his come back to the ATP tournament in Washington. The Spaniard's path in the American capital did not last long with the tennis player defeated in the second match against South African Lloyd Harris.
It was later discovered that Rafa had a relapse of the foot problem that had blocked him in Paris and now forced him to forfeit the Masters 1000 in Toronto and Cincinnati. The recovery times of the Majorcan are not known exactly but at this point even the presence of Nadal at the Us Open appears in doubt.
Nadal, after the Washington knockout, confirmed that this stop concerns the same injury that saw him suffer in 2005 and that brought him, at that time, one step away from retirement. This is the Muller-Weiss Syndrome, a rare disease that brought Rafa to great difficulty.
Nadal and a syndrome that was born in 2005
It was back in 2005 and Rafael Nadal totally imposed himself on the ATP Tour, winning 11 titles. As Punto de break underlines that year in Madrid he encountered a rather serious problem that the tennis player at that time commented as follows: "The day after becoming champion in Madrid I felt like lame and after careful analysis they told me that I had a problem at the scaphoid." In that period many doctors did not find solutions but in the end they diagnosed me with this disease.
To be precise, Muller-Weiss disease is a degenerative disease and represents a dysplasia of the scaphoid, a deformation of one of the bones located in the central part of the foot. Due to its symptoms it is a difficult disease to diagnose so much so that it is now part of the 'World Day of Rare Diseases' At the moment, Nadal's recovery time is not known but as he communicated his current goal is to return to the field without any pain.
At the moment Nadal is 7 in the ATP Race classification even if he has a good advantage in terms of Finals.