Rafael Nadal withdraws from Toronto Masters 1000 - here's why

Rafael Nadal announced on Wednesday that he will not be taking part in the Toronto Masters ATP 1000 event. The reason? A recurring foot injury that has been nagging at him for the past few months.

The injury was also one of the reasons he crased out of the Citi Open in the third round. Incidentally, that event was the one that saw him return to competitive tennis for the first time in months.

“I have had this issue for a couple of months, as people know,” said Nadal, a five-time winner of the event.

“Of course, it is not a happy situation after all the success that I had here in Canada, not being able to play this year after missing a year.”

“Today, with this pain, I am not able to enjoy it, and I really don’t believe that I have the chance to fight for the things that I really need to fight for.”

Nadal has said he has been dealing with a recurring foot issue since 2005. The issue returned at this year’s Roland Garros, where he fell to eventual champion Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals.

After that, he decided to sit out two of the year’s biggest events – Wimbledon and the Tokyo Olympics.

“I really wanted to play here a lot, but now is the moment to make a decision, and this is, unfortunately, the decision that I have taken, and probably in the next couple of days, we are going to know more,” he said.

What next for Rafael Nadal?

As of now, it remains unknown whether the Spaniard will have to sit out of the US Open as well. For this tournament, he will be replaced by lucky loser Feliciano Lopez.

The US Open gets underway from August 30 and is the last Grand Slam of the calendar year. Nadal, who hasn’t tasted Grand Slam success at all this year, would no doubt be desperate to play.

But as things stand, only time will tell if his foot issue heals in time for the Slam.