At 36 years old, Rafael Nadal He has won his fourteenth Roland Garros, which is his 22nd Grand Slam. There is no doubt that, today, he is the best tennis player in the world, above Novak Djokovic. But the most incredible thing is that he has achieved almost all these feats with a foot ailment that as the years go by it becomes more and more intense. Its about Mueller-Weiss syndrome, a rare and underdiagnosed cause of chronic pain, in which the navicular bone of the foot is affected. To date, there is no treatment, beyond a surgery That doesn’t always guarantee the best results. For this reason, with Rafa Nadal during all these years the intermediate option of trying relieve pain before games.
If the disease is quite rare to begin with, the case of Rafa Nadal is even rarer due to the age at which he debuted with the disease. And it is known that this syndrome is much more common in women, with ages of onset between 40 and 60 years. He began to feel the pains when I was only 19 years old. Since it is a degenerative disease, since then these have only gotten worse.
Therefore, on more than one occasion there has been talk of its possible withdrawal, especially after in 2021 he had to make a break in the middle of the season due to pain. If she has managed to get here, it has been thanks to injections aimed at literally numbing her foot. That is one of the options, but it is not viable for much longer. But then what other treatments are available for Rafael Nadal?
What is Rafa Nadal’s illness due to?
To know how to treat a disease, the first step is to understand its origin. And, unfortunately, this is not easy with the syndrome that Rafa Nadal suffers from.
It was first described in 1927 by the surgeon Walter Mueller. Two years later, his description was joined by that of the radiologist Konrad Weiss, who claimed to have treated patients with similar symptoms. However, the two specialists did not agree on what could be the origin of the syndrome. For Mueller it had to be a congenital disease. Namely; that, despite showing their faces in adulthood, patients were born with it. For Weiss, however, it could be due to a osteonecrosisin which the blood flow inside the bone would have been altered for different reasons.
It is not clear if it is a congenital disease or due to bruising or lack of risk in the bone
Since then many hypotheses have been launched. For example, if it is due to the accumulation of bruises on the foot. This would explain why it occurs in athletes as prolific as Rafa Nadal. However, it is not clear that the reason is this.
Without knowing its origin, it is not easy to determine the best treatments. It is generally chosen ease the pain and, in case this becomes very unbearable, resort to the surgery. Basically that is what they have started to do with Rafa Nadal and they still have some left cartridges to burn.
The danger of playing with your foot asleep
For now, Rafa Nadal has undergone infiltrations in which nerve is blocked responsible for the excruciating pain in his foot.
This allows you to play, yes, but basically his foot is asleep. That is why it is not something viable in the long term, since it could suffer sprains or other injuries derived from not being able to support the foot with adequate sensitivity.
With the foot asleep you could have sprains or other injuries
Despite the danger, this is how the tennis player has won this last Roland Garros. she has done aware of their limitations. In fact, a video went viral in which both he and his opponent were seen, Casper Rudd, just before going out to the arena. She could see how the Norwegian stood still by the door, while Rafa ran around the room, practicing both movements and racket strokes. It was even said that it was a strategy to make his rival nervous.
However, he himself has acknowledged in statements to COPE in reality it was a way to activate, since the need for activation is not the same at Rudd’s 23 years as at 36. By the way, so he could practice that footfall that could have been affected by the nerve block. And the truth is that he turned out well.
Now, your next step prior to surgery will be to try the radiofrequency injections. This is a very old technique that consists of using the heat coming from an alternating current of medium-high frequency. It has a multitude of applications, from cancer treatment to pain reduction. The latter is due to the fact that this increase in temperature can target sensory nerves responsible for pain in many pathologies. It would be much more specific than the infiltrations that have been carried out on Rafa Nadal to date, so that his condition would be reduced without the need to put his foot to sleep.
the last option
Finally, if all of the above did not go well, only the surgery would remain. As he explained to ABC Isabel Guillenhead of the Cartilage Unit and specialist in foot surgery at the Cemtro Clinic, the intervention would be an osteotomy.
This is an operation in which the joints are repaired.s cutting and reshaping bones. They could take away the pain, but unfortunately the procedure would be too invasive and prevent him from continuing with tournaments and training routines. He would mean that he had to give up tennis.
It is a moment that sooner or later will have to come. However, with the tennis player something like that happens with the Ingenuity helicopter, which arrived on Mars to make 5 flights in 30 days and has taken almost 30 in a year. Seen what has been seen, it is logical that NASA is reluctant to retire him. As reluctant as tennis fans around the world to stop seeing their beloved Rafa Nadal on the court.