Rafael Nadal is making the difficult decision to step back from tennis. The athlete has been dealing with a leg injury since January and has missed tournament after tournament. He was unable to heal on time for the French Open, also known as Roland Garros, and now he is taking a break from the sport.

On Thursday, the Spaniard shared his statement, both in Spanish and English on Instagram. With a look of disappointment, he began, “As you know, I will not be able to be at Roland Garros. It has been a few very difficult months.” “I worked super hard every day to try and be ready for the playing season, and then I was not able to play week after week, missing super important tournaments for my tennis career and now this one, the most important one - Roland Garros,” he continued.

For Nadal, missing Roland Garros was his cue to “stop for a while” so he can try and recover his body after the last couple of years have been filled with injuries, leaving him unable to perform to his expectations.

©GettyImages

His injury stems back to January 18th at the Australian Open second-round defeat to Mackenzie McDonald and he has not returned to the court since. In April, he pulled out of the Monte Carlo Masters tournament at the risk of getting injured.

Fans have been worried that he is getting ready to announce his retirement. We will just have to wait and see how the rest of the recovery process goes for Nadal, and hope to one day see him again on the court.

A difficult time for Nadal

It’s been a difficult time for Nadal, who has not only been dealing with an injury but recently lost his father-in-law, Miquel Perelló Más. It was revealed in April that his wife Mery Perelló said goodbye to her father after battling a long illness on April 20.

Just 24 hours before the passing of Miguel, Nadal announced that he was pulling out of the Madrid Masters 1000 tournament. “In principle, the recovery period was supposed to be six to eight weeks, and we are already at week 14. The reality is that the situation is not what we expected. All the medical recommendations were followed, but the progress has not been as we were initially told,“ he said at the time.