Rafael Nadal said he would have to wait and see how his body recovered after needing a medical time-out towards the end of his quarter-final loss at the Brisbane International on Friday.
Nadal needed treatment at 1-4 down in the third set of his match against Australian Jordan Thompson after feeling pain in his upper left thigh.
Thompson won the match 5-7, 7-6 (8/6), 6-3 in a marathon of 3hr 25min.
Nadal, who took most of 2023 off after suffering an injury at the Australian Open, needed two surgeries on his hip during his time away from the tour.
He said he had played pain-free during his opening two rounds this week, but conceded he had been in pain towards the end of the quarter-final.
He said that while the pain was in a similar place to last year’s injury, the injury itself felt different.
“It is a very similar place to what happened last year, but different, no?” the 37-year-old said.
“I feel it’s more muscle. Last year it was tendon. For sure it is not the same like last year at all because when it happened last year, I felt something drastic immediately.
“Today I didn’t feel anything. The only problem is because the place is the same, you are a little bit more scared than usual.
“I hope to have the chance to be practising next week and to play Melbourne,” he added.
“Honestly, I am not 100 percent sure of anything now.”
Nadal stressed he did not come into the tournament expecting to win, and hinted that even the Australian Open was too soon for him.
“In an ideal world, it is just the muscle supercharged after a few days of effort and a very tough match,” Nadal said, adding that he had been very cautious when talking about his comeback.
“That is why I’m talking all the time that my goal is to try to be competitive in a few months.”
