Rafael Nadal may have made his comeback from injury for the "last time" as Mats Wilander fears the Spaniard's Australian Open withdrawal could lead to retirement from tennis.
The 37-year-old spent the majority of the 2023 season out injured after losing to Mackenzie McDonald at last year's Australian Open.
He made his long-awaited comeback in Brisbane last week and recorded two impressive wins over Dominic Thiem and Jason Kubler.
But Nadal pulled up and required treatment during his loss to Jordan Thompson in the quarter-final, sparking doubts on how much he has recovered from his long injury absence.
Rafael Nadal will not be playing at the Australian Open
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The 22-time Grand Slam champion later announced that he suffered a "micro tear" and wouldn't be able to play in the Australian Open, although he said it wasn't the hip problem that kept him out for most of 2023.
When Nadal may return remains to be seen, but Wilander has raised doubts on whether the Spanish tennis icon will ever make it back after his latest setback.
“It's extremely sad news,” Wilander said on Eurosport.
“Obviously it's the most sad news for himself, because I saw the first three matches that he played in Brisbane. He looked extremely good in the first match against Dominic Thiem.
“He looked even better in the second round against Jason Kubler.
"And then, having three match points in the third round against Jordan Thompson. He looked great.
“He can miss those match points. We all have done that in our careers.
"The older you get, maybe the more pressure you put on yourself but I think it's a little bit of a wake-up call in one way.
Rafael Nadal suffered a micro tear on his muscle
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"We've been woken up all the time by rough injuries on others, but the injury that he has now, when you hear the description of it – micro, I mean the injuries he gets and has gotten are so different from other players.
“You just realise that it's not just his ankle and his knee and the big part of his muscle, it's also the smaller muscles in his body.
“Either he's trained so hard over the years, or he tries so hard over the years that he breaks. And it's so unusual.
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"It is unfair to someone like Rafa Nadal, because he's got the spirit that very few professional athletes have had over the years, and no-one, I think, gets the people so emotionally involved in his tennis or the sport they're doing.
“So he's a player that has had seasons. His season has very rarely lasted the whole year.
"We've gotten used to him coming back and doing the non-human thing, of coming back from injury time and time and time again, and maybe now at 37 years old, maybe this is the last time that he was able to come back.”