Nadal cools his return: “I still don’t know when I’ll be back, you have to go day by day”

Rafael Nadal attended an act of his foundation in Mallorca this Monday afternoon and far from confirming the date of his return, after 70 days away from the competition, he cooled his return to the slopes. The 36-year-old tennis player from the Balearic Islands suffered a Grade 2 injury to the iliopsoas in his left leg during the second round match of the Australian Open and has been working on his recovery ever since. Last Thursday, the organization of the Monte Carlo Masters 1000 announced his participation as of April 9, but the tennis player leaves it on the air for the moment.

“I don’t know when I’ll play again, that’s the truth,” said the 22-time champion. “I don’t know where this information comes from, but obviously, if it were true, I would confirm it, but unfortunately I cannot. I continue my course and I still do not know when I will return, that is the truth; I am in a phase of increasing my work and if I knew when I was going to return I would say so, but I don’t know”, insisted the Spaniard, who gently resumed activity a month ago and now continues with the readaptation, raising the pace but always with feet of lead.

“We have to go day by day and I will not anticipate something that I cannot fulfill later. I will say things when I really know them”, he resolved during the awards ceremony that took place at the Es Baluard, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Palma, chaired by him, UNESCO Deputy Director General for Social Sciences, Gabriela Ramos, and the President of Telefónica, José María Álvarez-Pallete. The parents and wife of the athlete, who in turn acts as director of the foundation, as well as other personalities, also attended the event.

Nadal is enrolled in the Monte Carlo tournament and also in the Godó in Barcelona (from April 15 to 23); Then the appointments in Madrid (from May 26 to 7) and Rome (from May 10 to 21) appear on the calendar, with the final destination at Roland Garros. The great Frenchman, which begins on May 28 and ends on June 11, is his main objective and he will not precipitate any maneuver that could jeopardize his presence in Paris, where he has won 14 times. With the passage of time – on June 3 he will be 37 years old – the tennis player has opted for a more conservative disposition when it comes to returning after injuries.

The latter, which affects the motor skills of the left leg, has deprived him of playing in Doha, Dubai, Indian Wells and Miami, as well as participating in an exhibition in Las Vegas scheduled for the beginning of this month. On the 16th, the director of the Monegasque tournament, David Massey, pointed out that “Rafa was the first player to sign up. He wants to play and he is giving himself every chance to make it so. That is the will, but the last word has the musculature. Depending on what the sensations dictate, Nadal will reappear in the Principality or later. Today, everything is hypothesis. There is no date.

You can follow EL PAÍS Sports on Facebook and Twitteror sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.