Nadal expected to miss another 5 months after hip surgery

Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal talks during a press conference to announce he will not compete in the French Open, at the Rafa Nadal Academy in Manacor, on the Spanish Balearic Island of Mallorca, on May 18, 2023. The 22-time Grand Slam winner withdrew from the French Open because his hip injury has not healed and said he expects 2024 to be his final year in professional tennis.
JAIME REINA / AFP / Getty

PARIS (AP) — Rafael Nadal is expected to need about five months to recover from arthroscopic surgery on his left hip, a timeline that likely would keep him out for the rest of this season.

Nadal's spokesman, Benito Perez-Barbadillo, said on Saturday — the 22-time Grand Slam champion's 37th birthday — that two procedures were performed Friday night by a trio of doctors at a clinic in Barcelona. One portion of the operation was for a tendon, the other for an old labrum injury.

When Nadal announced last month that he would be missing the French Open because of the hip problem that has sidelined him since January, he said he hoped to be able to return at some point in 2023 but that he expected next year to be the last of his career.

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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