(Madrid) Rafael Nadal, who will make his return to competition in Brisbane (Australia) in January, judged on Thursday “normal that this is (his) last year” on the tennis courts without however “ensuring it 100% “.

“In my mind it’s normal or very likely that this is my last year and I’m going to enjoy every tournament as if it were, but I don’t want to announce it as such because in the end we don’t don’t know what can happen,” Nadal, 37, said in a video posted on his social media.

The former world No.1, who fell to 664th in the ATP after an almost blank 2023 season due to a hip injury, insisted on the fact that “you must always give yourself an opportunity and not say something you might later regret.”

“I can’t guarantee 100%” that this will be the last year “because at the end of the day I worked hard to come back to competition, and if things and the physique allow me to go from there before and enjoy what I do, I think it doesn’t make sense to set a limit,” he added.

“There are many possibilities whether it’s my last year, whether it’s only half a year, whether it’s a full year, whether we can’t get to all of that, those are things I don’t think about. I don’t have the ability to respond at the moment,” continued the winner of 22 Grand Slam tournaments.

“I am only able to say that I am returning to competition,” said Nadal, who reiterated that he did not deserve “to end (his) sporting career in a press room.”

Rafael Nadal, who announced Friday that he would play the ATP 250 tournament in Brisbane from December 31 to January 7, has not played an official match since his defeat in the second round of the Australian Open last January.