Rafael Nadal is unwell for the second time this year. He hasn’t seemed right since his first fever at the beginning of the season and has repeatedly complained of being tired when a normal healthy Nadal would be fine.
For weeks now I’ve been wondering if he never kicked the virus, if he had mono, even at a stretch possibly over training syndrome but he said nothing. As soon as he stepped onto the clay courts he didn’t seem to be moving properly or hitting regular deep aggressive balls – the same as in 2009 when he had some knee problems.
Yesterday it 
was revealed that Rafa was again suffering from a fever. It seems again instead of resting and properly getting over it Nadal has jammed Barcelona into his schedule (possibly the cause of the virus reappearing) and continued to play in Rome. When he kept pushing in January he ended up bucketing sweat out during his Australian Open matches and then injuring himself.
By failing to learn from his mistakes Rafa is putting any chance he had of defending Wimbledon and Roland Garros (next week!) in seriously jeopardy. It’s almost like watching a car crash – it’s happening in slow motion, you want to look away but you just can’t.
“I had a fever this morning but I feel better now. Certainly I didn’t really understand why yesterday I felt slow and without energy and I understand now better today. That is that and I am here to fight and to try my best like I have always done. I am ready for everything.”
Sometimes I wonder if Rafa has good years alternately. 2008 and 2010 were blinders and 2009 was a disaster and in 2007 he also had knee problems. Maybe during the good years he pushes so hard and has so little rest that he then falls apart the following year and is forced to rest.
Is Rafa self destructing or is he not being guided properly by the people who are supposed to know better?
I hope I’m wrong.
“I had a fever last night and this morning I didn’t feel perfect. Before the match I didn’t know if I could go on court. I had a practice at 11:30 for just 15 minutes to see how it went and finally I decided to go on court. It worked a little bit better than yesterday.
It’s something that is impossible to control. It’s strange for me, usually I never have this kind virus or fever but it’s the second time for me this year.
I don’t know if it’s the tournaments, changing places, having to adapt very fast to different places.
The last few months have been hard. I certainly didn’t understand very well yesterday why I felt that slow and without energy. I understand better today..” – Rafael Nadal
