Rafael Nadal revealed that he played most of his tennis career with chronic pain caused by a rare degenerative foot condition called Mueller-Weiss syndrome, which was diagnosed after a foot injury in 2005 [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. He broke his left foot in the 2005 Madrid Open final, shortly after winning his first French Open at age 19, which led to the diagnosis [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. Nadal said the syndrome was likely triggered by intense childhood training from his uncle Toni Nadal [1, 2, 3, 5, 6].

Despite the pain and ongoing complications, Nadal won 22 Grand Slam singles titles before retiring in 2024 [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. He described his career as a "race against time" battling the durability of his foot, never knowing how long he could continue competing [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. At the 2022 French Open final, his last Grand Slam victory, he had no feeling in his leg due to anesthetic injections used to manage his pain [2, 3, 4, 5, 6].

To maintain his playing career, Nadal took significant health risks including using specialist insoles, painkillers, and targeted anesthetic injections [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. He said, "I've had to make decisions about my health, where you are on the borderline between right or wrong. But if I hadn't explored all that, I probably would have had 10 fewer Grand Slams... this is the reality" [1].

The foot injury also caused other health issues. Nadal suffered tendinitis in his left knee and intestinal perforations caused by prolonged painkiller use [2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. Despite the pain and setbacks, Nadal said his passion and happiness in tennis outweighed the suffering: "The key was the suffering was less than my passion and my happiness for what I was doing" [2].

Nadal announced himself to the world in 2005 with his first French Open win over world number one Roger Federer in the semi-final [1, 2, 3]. After a nearly 20-year career marked by injuries, he retired from professional tennis in 2024 [2, 3, 4, 5, 6].

On May 29, 2026, Nadal gave interviews and appeared in the Netflix series "Rafa," openly discussing the physical toll and health risks he faced during his career [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. The series highlights the challenges behind his 22 Grand Slam titles and reveals the personal cost of competing at the highest level with chronic injury.