Rafael Nadal is expected to miss 5 more months after having hip surgery

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PARIS (AP) — Rafael Nadal is expected to need about five months to recover from arthroscopic surgery on his left hip, a timeline that likely would keep him out for the rest of this season.

Nadal’s spokesman, Benito Perez-Barbadillo, said on Saturday — the 22-time Grand Slam champion’s 37th birthday — that two procedures were performed Friday night by a trio of doctors at a clinic in Barcelona. One portion of the operation was for a tendon, the other for an old labrum injury.

When Nadal announced last month that he would be missing the French Open because of the hip problem that has sidelined him since January, he said he hoped to be able to return at some point in 2023 but that he expected next year to be the last of his career.

FILE – Rafael Nadal, of Spain, plays a backhand return to Mackenzie McDonald, of the U.S., during their second-round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Jan. 18, 2023. Nadal had arthroscopic surgery on Friday, June 2, 2023, for the injured left hip flexor that forced him to sit out the French Open for the first time since he won the first of his record 14 titles there in his 2005 tournament debut. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara, File)

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