Rafael Nadal out for five months after hip surgery

Joint Grand Slam record holder Rafael Nadal will miss at least five more months of ATP Tour action after undergoing surgery.

Nadal’s keyhole surgery on his injured hip was reportedly “positive” however, he will require a five-month recovery period before he can return to the court.

Rafael Nadal out for five months

The 37-year-old, who on Saturday celebrated his 22nd birthday, may theoretically return in time for the November Davis Cup finals.

He has already said that 2024 will be his final season of competition. Thus it is probable that he will sit out the remainder of the current campaign before returning.

“The surgery was positive,” said his spokesman of the procedure which was carried out in Barcelona.

“The normal recovery process is estimated at five months.”

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Nadal said last month that he was taking extra time away from the sport since the hip issue had not healed as effectively as he had planned.

For the first time since 2004, the Spaniard skipped the current French Open, which he has won 14 times.

Additionally, he will skip Wimbledon, where he has won twice, in July.

Nadal had anticipated that the injury he sustained in a January Australian Open second-round defeat to Mackenzie McDonald would recover in six weeks.

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Losing ground

Old adversary Novak Djokovic has the opportunity to win a third French Open while he recovers and break the record for Major titles with his 23rd title at this level.

Djokovic made it to the round of 16 in Paris on Friday for the fourteenth year in a row. On Sunday, he will play Peruvian Juan Pablo Virallas, who is ranked 94th, for a spot in the quarterfinals.

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The surgeon who performed the procedure on Nadal, Angel Ruiz Cotorro, stated that “the intervention has a high probability of success.”

Ruiz Cotorro, who serves as the Spanish Tennis Federation’s medical advisor, advised journalists on the sidelines of the French Open to avoid any sort of “rush” with regard to the recuperation period.

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“We set ourselves this deadline (of five months) because it is important for an athlete to have a goal to stimulate his will to fight and to recover,” he said.

“It is difficult to say whether in five months he will be able to play at 100 percent. He may have to take another month to recover.”

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