FOOTAGE of Rafael Nadal’s final Wimbledon training session before he heartbreakingly retired from the tournament has emerged.
The tennis icon, 36, pulled out of his semi-final with Nick Kyrgios after suffering a seven-millimetre tear in his abdominal muscle.
Rafael Nadal was filmed speaking to his doctor before withdrawing from Wimbledon
Nadal sat down gingerly as he practised on court
Nadal battled through injury to beat Taylor Fritz in the quarter-finals
And footage from Nine’s Wide World of Sports of the Spaniard training yesterday shows him talking to his doctor Angel Ruiz-Cotorro.
Nadal was seen speaking to the doc at length as he appeared to rub the affected area on the right side of his belly.
The 22-time Grand Slam champ then gingerly sat down by his bag before some gentle practice.
His doctor watched him like a hawk as he was slowly put through his paces.
But in the end Nadal made the decision last night to withdraw from the tournament.
He admitted he didn’t believe he could win two matches with the abdominal injury and cannot serve at full tilt.
Nadal’s family were caught on camera frantically gesturing for Nadal to quit as he battled injury during his five-set quarter-final win over Taylor Fritz.
His withdrawal means Australian bad-boy Kyrgios has received a walkover to the final.
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Kyrgios will now face either British No1 Cameron Norrie or world No1 Novak Djokovic in the final.
The pair are due to meet this afternoon on Centre Court.
Speaking about being forced to withdraw, Nadal said: “Unfortunately I am here because I have to pull out from the tournament, everybody saw yesterday I had been suffering with pain in the abdominal.
“I know something was not okay there. that is confirmed. I have a tear in the muscle of the abdominal.
“The communication is too late, I was thinking during the whole day, the decision to make
“I think it is, yeah, it doesn’t make sense to go. Even if I did many times in my career to keep going, tough circumstances, it is obvious if I keep going, the injury will be worse and worse. I feel very sad to say that.
“I believe I cannot win two matches under these circumstances. I cannot serve. It is not only I cannot serve at the right speed. I cannot do the normal movement to serve.
“I don’t want to go out there and not be competitive to be at this level to play to achieve my goal with a big cance to make the things much worse.”
