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The death of the Matador Rafael Nadal?

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Mandeep returns from his sabbatical to talk about his growing injury and form concerns over Rafael Nadal

Those of you who have read my column in the past may have noticed I am not the greatest fan of El Matador - Rafael Nadal. Undoubtedly he has been a great player, but I am a not big fan of talented players over grinders. Perhaps I am being harsh to the three-time French Open winner, but I was not surprised by the massacre Nadal suffered at the hands of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at the recent Australian Open semis.

For those of you who follow the tennis circuit regularly, it is an open secret that Nadal has been suffering with some long term injuries during the off-season. In particular his back and knee have been issues of major concern. But the major source of worry has been a foot injury which he has played with for over two years.

His coach and uncle Toni Nadal recently commented "Rafael's been affected by an injury to his foot since 2005. He has to learn to live with it. So far he's managed for two years. It's very serious. I don't know if it's career-threatening. I'll let the doctor reply to that. We are pleased with the season just finished, with the injury and everything. His play has improved and the matches have been less intense." It is particularly worth noting the last point made. Nadal's matches may have been less intense during normal tournament play, but in the bigger events that has certainly not been the case. If Nadal is not 100% match fit, his performances are affected more than most, as he relies so heavily on his fitness, strength and endurance to overcome his opponents. The intensity of the recent match against Tsonga (the type of match Nadal of 2005/6 would have relished) was too much for him. He appeared bemused and lost, a situation that his alien to him. Is it a case of others players coming through and improving their level of play, or is the Matador in decline?

There is no doubt that the emergence of serious challengers to the 'Big 2' is a large contributory factor in Nadal's surprise results in the last two grand slam events. But Nadal did win at Roland Garros last year, and performed admirably during Wimbledon - only losing the mighty Roger Federer a 5 set epic. Since that Wimbledon final though, Nadal will have been disappointed by his results. Has the physical wear and tear of playing so many matches taken its toll?

In modern day professional sport, particularly amongst the most physically-demanding sports, there has been a consistent theme of young top class sportsmen suffering injury crises in their low to mid-twenties. For example, there are similar cases in other sports of players who have arrived on the big scene at a young age, and gone on to suffer major injuries. Michael Owen in soccer and Jonny Wilkinson in Rugby are just two parallel examples of how a young body can only cope with a limited amount of punishment before something gives in.

During the late teens and early twenties, the human body is still developing physically. It is not designed to cope with the consistent levels of stress placed upon it by the intensity of top level sport. I fully expect this to be the case in the coming years with the new darling of Tennis - Novak Djokovic.

Rafael Nadal should also be worried by the increasing number of challengers who are able to match him physically, making his matches that much more difficult to win. I believe this could be an extremely tough year for him, and would not be surprised if he ended the year at world number 4 or even 5.