Tennis: Rafael Nadal nervous about return after seven-month lay-off

“I have my doubts. It’s normal, we are talking about a knee, so of course I am afraid to see how it is going respond,” Nadal said last night. “But I can only trust my doctors and believe in myself and that everything will be all right.”

The 26-year-old Spaniard is set to play an exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, his first action since being sidelined with tendinitis in his left knee following a second-round loss to then 100th-ranked Lukas Rosol at Wimbledon in June. The injury prevented Nadal from defending his Olympic singles gold at the London Games, where he was supposed to be Spain’s flag bearer in the opening ceremony. He also had to pull out of the US Open and Spain’s Davis Cup final against the Czech Republic, which his team-mates lost without him.

The 11-time Grand Slam winner and former No 1 said his knee has improved over the last two months after making frustratingly little progress during the summer.

Even so, he acknowledged that he may have to skip some more events in order to get back to full speed.

“I’m prepared to accept that at the start my knee might not respond well and I may have to take it easy, mixing periods of play and rest for the first three months,” he said. Nadal added that he wanted to play at  Indian Wells and Miami with the goal of being completely fit by April to play at Monte Carlo, a clay-court tournament he has dominated for eight consecutive years.

The Abu Dhabi tournament features a six-man field that  includes top-ranked Novak Djokovic and Scotland’s Olympic and US Open champion Andy Murray.