Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal smiles during a training session at Santa Ponsa Country Club in Santa Ponsa, on the Spanish Balearic Island of Mallorca, on June 17.JAIME REINA/AFP/Getty Images
Rafael Nadal will try to play at Wimbledon after going “a week without limping” thanks to new treatment on his painful left foot, the 22-time Grand Slam champion said Friday.
“My intention is to play Wimbledon,” Nadal said on his home island of Mallorca. “If things don’t go as I would like, then we will see what will happen. (But) I am happy. I have gone a week without limping.”
Nadal had said after winning his 14th French Open title almost two weeks ago that he was not sure if he could continue to play with the extreme foot pain. He was only able to finish Roland Garros after numbing his foot with painkilling shots, a method that the Spaniard said he would not like to repeat.
The mild improvement to the chronic condition that has bothered him for years came after Nadal visited a clinic in Barcelona last week to receive radiofrequency treatment to the pained nerves.
The 36-year-old Nadal has said that if this latest attempt to make his foot condition more bearable does not work he will consider surgery, a move that he admits could put the continuation of his career in question.
Nadal also spoke on his future as a first-time father after it was reported in the Spanish media this week that his wife, Maria Francisca Perello, is pregnant.
“I don’t know how it will change my life, I have no experience (being a father), but I don’t plan for it to mean a change in my professional career,” Nadal said.
Wimbledon starts on June 27.
Two of the Nadal’s men’s-record 22 Grand Slam singles titles have come at the the All England Club.