What was the exact injury to Rafael Nadal in the QF against Taylor Fritz? All you need to know about the Spaniard's future at Wimbledon 2022

Rafael Nadal was not in a celebratory mood despite coming through an incredible five-set battle against Taylor Fritz to reach the Wimbledon semifinals in his first appearance in three years. A new injury concern, an abdominal issue this time, forced the Spaniard, his team, and his fans into a state of suspense about his future in the tournament ahead of Friday's semifinal against Nick Kyrgios.

The injury struck Nadal towards the end of the first set itself and he was forced to take a medical timeout midway through the second set. Despite the restriction in movements that affected his serve, in particular, the second seed continued and eventually won 4-6, 7-5, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6(4) in almost four and a half hours on the court.

Speaking in his post-match press conference, Nadal himself was unsure of the extent of his injury, suggesting that "some more tests" on Thursday will give him and his team a better idea of the severity of the ailment.

"I don’t really know, tomorrow I’m gonna have some more tests," said Nadal. "So I’m used to have things, to hold pain and play with problems and knowing that when I feel something because like I felt because there is something not going the proper way." he added.

The two-time Wimbledon champion has been playing with tapings around his abdominal area throughout the tournament. While he was not comfortable speaking about the reason for the same during earlier interactions with the media, Nadal gave some insight into the pain he has been experiencing over the last few days that got worse during the quarterfinal match.

"Let’s see, it’s nothing new, I’ve had these feelings for a couple of days but without a doubt today was the worst day and it has been an ongoing race of pain and limitation. And that’s it, yeah, I managed to win that match and let’s see what’s going on tomorrow," the 36-year-old said further.

It seems that Nadal was certainly helped by the treatment and medication given by the tournament doctor during the medical time-out. However, he revealed that his abdominal injury is of a nature that could not be fixed in a short span as that of a time-out and the doctors just tried a temporary fix during the match.

"They can’t do much honestly, doctor came, he gave me some anti-inflammatories and that’s it. The physio just tried to relax the muscle a little bit, nothing can be fixed when you have a thing like this. I just wanted to give myself a chance, not easy to leave the tournament, not easy to leave Wimbledon even if the pain was hard," continued the Spaniard.

Will Rafael Nadal play the 2022 Wimbledon semifinal against Nick Kyrgios?

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The 22-time Grand Slam champion maintained that he needs to wait for the results of Thursday's scans and tests to learn more about his future in the tournament. The Spaniard confirmed that visuals of his father and sister gesturing to him before his time-out in Wednesday's match were indeed them asking him to retire from the match, which suggests his injury could be serious.

However, Nadal wishes not to make big claims beforehand and urged everyone to be patient regarding information on his potential participation in Friday's semifinal.

"I don’t know honestly, I can’t give you a clear answer because if I give you a clear answer and tomorrow when another thing happens, I will be a liar, so I can’t," the World No. 4 said.

"If I already decided something, I will not be here and do any show and say something and then tomorrow I say some other thing. If I’m here its because I’m honest and I don’t have a decision and at the end, all the decisions are player’s decisions but at the same time I need to know different opinions and I need to check everything the proper way. That is even something more important than win Wimbledon, that is the health and let’s see how this is going," he added on the same.

The Mallorca native is set to face a player in great form during the grasscourt season, in the semifinals on Friday. Kyrgios is one of the players to have competed in the most number of matches ahead of Wimbledon. The two players have faced off twice so far at Wimbledon, with the Australian player winning their match in 2014 and the Spaniard winning in 2019.

Meanwhile, Nadal is on a 19-match winning streak in Grand Slams this year.