“Why didn’t you stop?”- That is what Carlos Moya asked Rafael Nadal after the latter had lost his match to Jordan Thompson at the 2024 Brisbane International, having played the match through pain. In that one scene from the acclaimed docuseries, “Rafa”, one could understand the mentality with which the Spaniard won 22 major titles in a career spanning over two decades. Having battled through injuries throughout his career, the former World No. 1 has come to terms with his approach to the sport, while admitting the consequences.

“I appreciate how lucky I was to experience all these things thanks to tennis,” said Nadal in a recent interview with The Athletic. “I could always count on the support of my family and my team. When you look at all these photos, the memories come back, as do the moments experienced and the people who were by our side. I always kept in mind that every year could be my last on tour. I wouldn’t say I was afraid of it, but I knew that possibility existed. The only positive aspect of all those injuries is that they taught me to enjoy the good moments even more and to measure their full value. But I spent my entire career playing with pain. And on a daily basis, I suffered enormously.”

Having been diagnosed with Müller-Weiss syndrome as early as 2005, Nadal’s career was always a race against time in his own mind. The Spaniard never hesitated to take drastic measures to combat injuries, whether it was using the highly risky move of wearing an insole in his shoe to counter foot pain, or taking anti-inflammatories to battle a knee injury in 2013, which had its own side effects.

Taking such drastic measures always came with a cost, as using the insole in his shoe repeatedly was one of the causes behind his issues with his knee, whereas by his own admission in the documentary, the anti-inflammatory injections created a hole in his intestine. Aside from his foot and knee, his back was another problem area for Nadal during his career, which most notably kept him from playing at full throttle in the 2014 Australian Open final against Stan Wawrinka.

Not to mention, the gritty game style that Nadal developed under the tutelage of his uncle, Toni Nadal, didn’t help his injuries. Arguably the greatest clay-court player of the sport, the Spaniard’s style depended on him to push his body to the limit while chasing after every ball while defending, and using his full-blooded topspin forehand to attack his opponents.

Nadal is not the only player who has pushed his body through injuries over the years. One of his foremost rivals, Novak Djokovic, has also taken a similar approach in his career. In 2024, Djokovic had to withdraw from the French Open after suffering a knee injury. While the whole tennis community had taken the 24-time Major champion’s absence from the Tour for granted, Djokovic pushed his body through intense recovery and reached the Wimbledon final and later won the Olympic gold, the last worthy accolade missing from his resume.

In an ironic turn of events, Nadal himself faced an opponent in 2022 who beat the Spaniard in a high-profile event. Playing Nadal in the final of the Indian Wells event in 2022, Taylor Fritz made the risky decision to take painkiller injections to control the pain in his foot from an injury he had gotten during warm-up. The move worked as the home favorite beat the Spaniard in straight sets.

As for Nadal, some of the Spaniard’s greatest triumphs came after he overcame his injuries and made a name for himself for playing through pain.

Some of Rafael Nadal’s Biggest Wins Came After He Came Back From Injury

Some of Nadal’s career-defining wins came after he had conquered his many injuries. Back in 2006, the Spaniard won the French Open after an arduous recovery from his chronic foot condition, which did not yield a permanent fix but instead led him to adopt a makeshift solution of using an insole.

2013 was one of the best seasons the Spaniard had on the Tour, during which he won 10 events while battling a knee injury. Not to mention his comeback in 2017, where he came back after another long injury layoff and reached the final of three out of the four Majors that season, winning the French Open and the US Open.

Even in his last Grand Slam-winning year, in 2022, one saw Nadal’s tenacity. Numbing his foot with injections, the Spaniard won his last Major at the 2022 French Open, which was his fourteenth title at Roland Garros. Even at Wimbledon, he braved through an abdominal tear in his quarterfinal match against Fritz, but could not push any further and had to withdraw from his semifinal.