What lies ahead for Nadal after injury withdrawal from Australian Open 2024

It wasn't the same Rafael Nadal that returned to action last week in Brisbane. Yes, the intensity was the same, and so was the competitive nature, the service routine, and the placing of the water bottles. Yet Rafa had a different aura of formidability, which was purely down to his game. He served with a lot of precision, flattened his backhand, used baseline variety and looked calmer at the nets.

The 22-time Grand Slam champion never looked like one who had been out of action for the last 12 months owing to a hip injury. He looked far more liberated and confident, at least in the first six sets of tennis he played in the ATP 250 event in Queensland, where he won the opening two rounds in straight sets to make the quarters. And thus began the discussions over the predictions for the Australian Open, with Nadal sending 2022 vibes, the year he had returned from a career-ending foot injury to win his second major in Melbourne. But it did not age well.

During the final set of his quarterfinal match against Jordan Thompson, in front of a packed Pat Rafter Arena on Friday evening, Nadal was seen clutching his thigh in agony before walking off the court with a medical time-out. He later wrapped up the match where the Aussie secured a valiant victory after denying the 37-year-old three match points, but the concern over that hip injury remained.

It was only a year back when the Spaniard had injured his left hip flexor during a shock second-round loss at the Australian Open in January. He later had surgery in June and remained out of action for the rest of the year.

Nadal confirmed to the press after the match against Thompson that although the injury in Brisbane was in a "similar" area to the one incurred in 2023, this was more of a muscle pain due to consecutive matches, which included a tough quarterfinal clash.

The Australian Open is still a week away, with Nadal confirmed a place in the main draw by using protected ranking, but he cut short the anticipation on Sunday, revealing that he incurred a "micro tear" on his muscle, thus ending his hopes of making a 19th appearance at Melbourne Park.

Just when there were more positives to look at and analyse as Nadal built towards his Australian Open return, another injury prematurely cut short his plans. But the fear deepened as Nadal's emotional revelation at a press conference in May 2023 resurfaced, where the 91-time tour-level titlist reckoned that 2024 could be his final year on the ATP tour.

The Spaniard, ahead of the start of his campaign in Brisbane International, later admitted that the plan could change depending on how the next three months pan out for him, physically, but the hip injury surely sparked the question of whether world tennis has already seen the last of Rafa in Australian Open.

If you go through his social media post on the injury, yet again, you would notice that Nadal remains optimistic of a return soon. "I have micro tear on a muscle, not in the same part where I had the injury and that's good news," he assured.

"I have worked very hard during the year for this comeback and as I always mentioned my goal is to be at my best level in three months," continued Nadal. "This is not very bad news and we all remain positive with the evolution for the season."

Nadal may not be available for the hardcourt campaign which includes the Indian Wells and Miami Open after the Australian Open, but if his words do remain true, and he manages to recover well, clay court season could be the one where world tennis could get to see the Spaniard in action yet again. He had already signed up for a Barcelona Open return last week.

However, the possibility of retirement will loom large, and probably become more inevitable if things go south.