(Reuters) – Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal is recovering well from a left wrist injury and is on track to compete at the Olympics in Rio, his doctor said on Tuesday.
The 14-time grand slam champion has been sidelined since May 27 after injuring a tendon. He was forced to pull out of the French Open after two rounds and miss Wimbledon.
“We are all working towards getting him ready for the Olympics,” Angel Ruiz-Cotorro, a doctor at the Spanish Tennis Federation, told AS newspaper.
Ruiz-Cotorro, who has treated Nadal since he was 14, is optimistic the world number four will be ready for Rio.
“I see him strong,” he said. “He is following the normal recovery schedule and meeting the timeframe we set.”
Nadal, 30, is expected to return to play at the Toronto Masters at the end of July before traveling to Brazil.
“He is working very well and the sooner he can recover and start to compete the better it will be for him to get into a rhythm,” Ruiz-Cotorro said. “But we have to be careful. He is strengthening the wrist and that is the most complicated aspect and where we have to be more careful.” Nadal, who won gold at the Olympics in Beijing eight years ago, is eager to compete in Rio after missing the 2012 Games in London due to a knee injury.
(Writing by Adriana Garcia; Editing by Pravin Char)
Reuters
