Diario de Mallorca,
by Manel Ferrera (Manacor)
Translated by Becky
May 7, 2024

Thus recovers a champion

The tennis player from Manacor prepares for his return with pool sessions, tennis in a chair, Magnetic therapy, and physical preparation

Rafael Nadal Parera (6-3-2025), the phenomenon of the Majorcan, Spanish, and world sport, has experienced the first great stumbling block of his career in Estoril on April 16. A stress fracture in the scaphoid of his left foot halted his incontestable ascension toward the top-ten, in the season of his consecration among the best in the world with the racquet. The worst predictions after careful examination confirmed that, for the second consecutive year, injuries prevent him from attending a tournament in which would have showed a lot, Roland Garros. He will be out of play for two months. Also he has to practically say good-bye to what was surely his Olympic presen! ce. Since then, the dazzling spotlights on the Rafa Nadal of the ATP circuit have transferred to the familiar Rafael Nadal, the youth that, situated among his Manacor and Palma, hurries the recovery of a wound that will cause him to miss both Roland Garros and the Olympic Games, but not Wimbledon. Surrounded by his friends and family and in his own habitat, Rafael spends intense days of recovery, that begin in the morning and do not have an end until the night. Together with his family, he also continues working in his house. The visit last week to Doctor Angel Ruiz Cotorro, medic of the Spanish Tennis Federation, revealed that the recovery of Nadal is going a great deal better than he predicted. Of the two months predicted, the estimations have changed to one. The key to his success, the work.

The day of labor

The day of labor for Nadal begins in the morning. He goes to the Pool of Manacor, he puts on his bathing suit, a bathing cap covers his head and then to the water he goes. There in the liquid element he carries out an intense physical workout under the attentive supervision of his uncle, coach, attendant and counselor, Toni Nadal. The session lasts about three quarters of an hour (45 minutes), and the workout is divided among exercises to maintain his muscle stature and the always complete swimming �that he develops with a style that we�d say is original-. At distant meters from the pool we find Manacor Tennis. The Nadals make their way there. Rafael still smiles with timidity when, as he enters the establishment, he! observes the pages of the magazines manacorinas dedicated to him on the walls. The young tennis player cannot be allowed the luxury of losing two months of �touch� with his intimate friend, the racquet, because of that, although he still has to live on crutches, he should play tennis to maintain his technique. Nadal, when time permits, plants himself in the middle of track one, sits down in a chair, grabs his racquet and waits until his uncle Toni turns to him. The coach catches the balls and throws them back to him. Rafael, seated in his chair, should strike them right, backwards, as serves, ... as he would do in a normal training session, but with the peculiarity that he should do it seated in a chair. And he does not do this for a short period of time, but the session is extended to an hour. After the tennis session is finished, the moment arrives to work on rehabilitation. The Nadals get into their car and are transferred to the Hospital of Manacor. There he is submitted to sessions of magnetic therapy, magnetic waves that help the fissure to close as quickly as possible. There he finishes his morning day.

In the afternoon, more work

After reviving his strength, Nadal turns to the break again, and this time in Palma. It is time to go to the hiperbaric chamber at Juaneda (a clinic in Mallorca). "It is an invention that I did not know about, but it causes the bone to close quickly, and heal well", indicates the tennis player. The arrival of Nadal to the clinic prompts stares from everyone. In Manacor, he another of the ones that they are tremendously proud of, but he is one of their own and they are accustomed to living with him. In Ciutat, its another story. "Look, it�s Nadal, the tennis player". It takes nothing more than for him to appear at the door,! with his crutches, for there to be no more eyes for anybody. As he arrives to the hiperbaric chamber, he signs tennis balls, shirts or books for his machine-mates, the ones that can we can presume to be the hiberbaric chamber colleagues of Rafael Nadal. He should be in the chamber for an hour, seated and with a mask. It can be one of the most boring activities. Therefore he gathers a pair of magazines that he has at hand and the book that he is now reading, La Tapadera (The Firm), by John Grisham.

To finalize his session in at Juaneda, more work, in this occasion a physical preparation with Joan Forcades. And, as he returns to his house, already at night, he has a "machine" that is placed on his foot to continue the work of recovery. He goes to sleep, and the following day, it�s more of the same. Rafael Nadal does not want it to go any other way. His passion for tennis carries him to work for what is necessary to continue with his ascent to high places. With a furnished head, he is following the prudent advice of his family and Doctor Cotorro, but with desires of returning to compete and to continue amazing the world with his character of a champion.