Rafael Nadal has revealed that his love for tennis always exceeded the physical suffering that haunted his entire career, admitting in a new Netflix documentary that he repeatedly pushed his body beyond safe limits to stay competitive at the highest level.
The 22-time Grand Slam champion spent most of his playing years battling chronic injuries while making health decisions he describes as borderline reckless. Yet he insisted those sacrifices were necessary to reach the pinnacle of the sport.
"The key was the suffering was less than my passion and my happiness for what I was doing," Nadal said in the documentary, reported by the BBC.
He went further when discussing what might have been without his relentless approach. "If I hadn't explored all that, I probably would have had 10 fewer Grand Slams. I'm not saying one or two, I'm saying 10 or 12. This is the reality," the Spaniard explained.
Nadal's troubles began early. Shortly after winning the French Open at 19 in 2005, a foot injury at the Madrid Open final led to a diagnosis of Mueller-Weiss syndrome, a rare degenerative condition attacking the bones in his foot. He called it "the origin of all my problems."
For years, he managed the condition with specially designed insoles. But that fix created new damage elsewhere. "My knee was destroyed. The tendon basically had a hole in it," Nadal said, recalling how the injuries forced him to miss the 2012 Olympics and US Open.
The adjustments rippled through his body in unexpected ways. Years of anti-inflammatory medication to manage pain caused perforations in his intestines. "I have two small perforations in my intestines, small perforations that can come from too many painkillers," he disclosed.
One of the most striking details from his later career came from the 2022 French Open. Before matches leading to his record 14th Roland Garros title, Nadal received targeted anaesthetic injections to numb the nerves in his foot. He barely felt his foot during play, yet won the tournament anyway.
The mental toll matched the physical damage. Nadal eventually sought psychiatric help after developing anxiety-related compulsive behaviours that interfered with basic functions. "If I didn't have a bottle of water in my hand, I couldn't swallow and I would choke on my own saliva," he explained. "I knew it was anxiety, but I couldn't find a solution."
Despite understanding the cost, Nadal said he had to remain "over-positive, over-determined, always ready to try to find a solution to keep being competitive and find a way to be on court again."
Nadal retired from professional tennis in 2024, having won 22 Grand Slam singles titles and cementing his place alongside Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic as one of the defining figures of the modern tennis era.
