Barcelona | Rafa Nadal undergoes hip surgery

The news that the 22-time grand slam champion has undergone hip surgery was revealed today and to many, came as a surprise.

The procedure was successfully carried out in Barcelona’s Steadman Clinic by Dr. Philippon, Dr. Vilaro and Nadal’s regular physician, Dr. Ruiz-Cotorro with his management team reporting that their player was now expected to be side-lined for at least five months. However his rehabilitation was already underway.

The operation took place today, Saturday, which is his 27th birthday and his transfer back to his home in Mallorca and birthday celebrations was also well in hand.

Nadal has in fact has already been side-lined since he first picked up the injury in Melbourne last January during the Australian Open and he always hoped he would regain his fitness to compete at the French Open where he has dominated over the past decades winning the title 14 times.

Unfortunately, he was forced to pull out and looked very unlikely to compete at any event during the rest of the season which is now the case.

On Friday Nadal announced he was having keyhole surgery on his left psoas muscle and in the latest update, the Spanish icon said it had all been ‘positive’.