Melbourne | Nadal out for six weeks

Following his shock second round exit from the Australian Open with what looked like a bad hip injury, fans will not be surprised to learn that their idol is keen to make as early a return to the court as possible.

Now it's sports rest and anti-inflammatory physiotherapy. Normal recovery time six to eight weeks Rafa Nadal

However, the 36-year-old will definitely miss the Dubai Tennis Championships next month and is also a serious doubt for the sunshine swing which features the Indian Wells and the Miami Master evens. Indian Wells is set for March 8, while Miami gets underway on March 22.

“Good afternoon. I have undergone medical tests after losing yesterday,” the Spaniard wrote on Twitter.

“The MRI shows a grade 2 lesion in the Iliacus Psoas of my left leg. Now it’s sports rest and anti-inflammatory physiotherapy. Normal recovery time six to eight weeks.”

The iliacus and psoas are the two main iliopsoas muscles and are crucial to tennis players, providing stability and controlling motion in the hip.

Nadal is expected to shift his focus to the clay swing, where he will target an astonishing 15th title at Roland-Garros.

His ranking though, will now dropdramatically and might well see him drop out of the top ten for the first time in 19 years!

He will lose 1,955 points following yesterday’s loss as defending champion, meaning he is set to drop from world No. 2 to No. 6 – and could slip further depending on other results over the next 11 days.

“I have been a couple of days like this,” Nadal admitted. Shortly after his loss

“I can’t say I’m not destroyed mentally because I would be lying. It’s hard, but hopefully it’s nothing too bad,” he added.

“I really hope that it doesn’t put me out of the court for a long time.

“It’s not only the recovery. It’s all the amount of work that you need to put together to come back at a decent level.

“I went through this process too many times in my career and I’m ready to keep doing it, I think. But it’s not easy, without a doubt.

“I lost the match, that’s it… I tried till the end. I was not able to hit the backhand at all and I was not able to run for the ball.”