Rafael Nadal He never ceases to amaze the world and once again he has made history in Paris, winning his fourteenth , this time against Casper Ruud (the first Norwegian athlete to win an ATP tournament).
And although those who have seen the game may think that it was an easy victory, it was probably the most worked, suffered and incredible victory of his entire career.
It had only been 24 days since he had to withdraw, completely lame, from the Rome Tournament.
And since the second round he has had to play undercover, with injections that numbed or anesthetized the nerve because it was the only way to avoid pain. But at the same time it reduced his sensitivity a bit in the movements.
And with all these difficulties, Rafa has taken another step, confirming himself as the best tennis player in history. And he distances himself even further as the player with the most, with 22, two more than Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.
The most difficult opponent to defeat
The final of this past Sunday will be remembered for the enormous physical sacrifice that the manacorí has made. Because far from his rivals on clay, now we all know that the biggest enemy of the 2008 Prince of Asturias Award for Sports is the Muller-Weiss syndrome.
This is a disease with which he has been dealing for a large part of his career as a professional tennis player, and which prevented him from competing in the 2021 season (absent at Wimbledon and the Tokyo Olympics).
This degenerative lesion, which has been diagnosed since 2005 (when he lifted his first ‘Musketeers Cup’ on center court Philippe-Chatrier), is chronic.
Nadal was diagnosed with Müller-Weiss syndrome in 2005, a chronic disease with treatments to “relieve” pain
As he explained to the podiatrist and vice president of (ICOPOV), Maite Garcia:
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“It is a disease that develops during childhood, but presents its symptoms in adulthood”
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“It is a biomechanical alteration of the bone structure of the foot, in which a compression of the navicular bone (the one that marks the height of the arch of the foot) occurs.”
It is a disease that affects, above all, people who from a very early age have been subjected to a lot of physical effort “and also in underdeveloped countries, where children work.”
In the worst case: difficulty even walking
The biggest problem that triggers this injury is that
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“In people who exert great pressure on these joints since childhood, the vascularization of the bone is interrupted, causing osteonecrosis (death of the affected bone cells).”
In the case of Nadal, García points out, “the problem is that he doesn’t stop. And he practices a sport with a lot of impact and a lot of twist, which has an impact on movement and pain in that area ”.
The main symptom of this disease is ongoing pain on the back of the foot. And as a consequence, in some patients it can also present gonalgia (knee pain) or osteoarthritis in the knees.
The sequelae of Müller-Weiss syndrome are deformity in the area and, depending on the evolution of the pathology, even difficulty walking.
Müller-Weiss syndrome: what is the treatment?
Maite García is clear. “There is no treatment for Müller-Weiss syndrome.”
In the early stages of the disease, the treatment prescribed is physiotherapy and templates tailored, to distribute body weight and avoid overloading the affected area.
“With this treatment it improves, but over time the resolution is more invasive, like what they have been doing to Rafa Nadal with analgesic blocks to play without pain”, emphasizes the podiatrist.
Injections with pulsatile radiofrequency, the new treatment that Nadal is going to undergo
This is how he explained it himself at a press conference:
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“The only way to be able to play was to put the foot to sleep. Do a remote blockade of the nerves with anesthesia injections. The foot is left with zero sensation, nor sensitivity. The foot cannot get worse, if there was the risk of doing hurt me elsewhere.”
The new treatment that the tennis player is undergoing consists of pulsed radiofrequency injections.
As he explained to the television channel French 2that would help to “disinhibit the nerve and remove the sensation of pain so permanent that I have”. In this way it would be possible to “leave my nerve half asleep and have that feeling that is more permanent, even though it leaves my foot without so much sensitivity”.
If it is diagnosed at an early stage, infiltrations can also be performed, that is, injections into local tissues to reinforce the bone and reduce symptoms. However, over time, “ultimately, and if it does not improve, it will have to be operated.”
However, this last step is intended to be delayed as “as much as possible”.
“The surgery is to fix the joints, which causes the foot to lose mobility.” Regarding whether Nadal could continue playing after this intervention, “it could not be said in any way”, because “it depends on the degrees of the deformity caused by the Müller-Weiss syndrome”.
Currently there are several surgical techniques:
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union of scaphoid to another bone.
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Reinforce it with an internal fixation.
The mean age of those diagnosed, despite appearing in childhood, is between 40 and 50 years old.