Since the illness of Muller-Weiss the foot he suffered from in 2005 until iliopsoas last January, Rafa Nadal He suffered 29 injuries that kept him sidelined for nearly 2,000 days.
Manacori, unlike its rivals Roger Federer and Novak Djokovichad to struggle for most of his career with physical loads that prevented him from participating in several tournaments.
Despite this, Rafa will bid farewell to the racket with an enviable track record that includes 22 Grand Slam tournaments.
During an interview in ‘As’, Nadal was asked the eternal question: Would you have won more titles without the injuries?
“That may be the case, but… In the end It’s obvious that I missed more than all my rivalsin terms of chances of winning Grand Slam tournaments”, began the Spaniard in impeccable reflection.
“I’m never one to think ‘if I had done it’ or ‘if I hadn’t had it’ (these injuries). It happened like that and, with that, I had a career that I never imagined and I am beyond happy,” he added.
In fact, it’s something he talked about with his biggest rival and successor: “I spoke about it with Federer and Alcaraz. You want to be the best in competition, because that’s the nature of sport. I wanted to be the best or at least I wanted to make an effort to try to be the best. But that never led me to be obsessed with it. »
At this point, the number of “majors” is not decisive: “And I said it the other day when talking to Federer. Yes, it’s true that when you are in the middle of a race and in competition, you want to win But you’re getting to the end of your career and, honestly, Even I am not at all more satisfied than Federer at 22 years old. (Grand Slam titles) and he was 20 years old. And I don’t think he would be more satisfied or happy if he was 25, one older than (Djokovic’s) 24. “I say it from the heart.”
“I think you appreciate that in the end you managed to give everything, to live, to make one of your childhood hobbies a very important part of your life. And, what’s more, successfully. I feel very lucky, beyond the injuries,” he explained.
“The fact that I had all these problems, and I mean it, It made me value all the positive things that happened to me at all times. “I think it allowed me to enjoy it,” he concluded.
