A minor injury is a major blow for Rafa Nadal, as time slips away for Spanish genius

Rafael Nadal gave the world’s tennis press five minutes to get themselves together. At 4:40, his press conference was called. By 4:45, the short corridor outside the press conference room was packed with a sea of confused and panicking journalists waiting for the Andy Murray post-match grilling to finish and the carnage to begin.

Nadal was about to announce his withdrawal from the tournament, his tournament, yet the world somehow hadn’t stopped. So as the rest of the world continued, the corridor played host to surreal sights as various tennis players departed their own interviews, desperately squeezing past countless bodies.

The briskness of the time between the announcement and the start of the press conference that ended in Rafael Nadal confirming his withdrawal from Roland Garros was in complete contrast to the long process that preceded it. For most of the past 18 months, Nadal has had to learn to accept the passage of time and even embrace it: accepting the afflictions it has caused his body and his game, and embracing the idea that if he continues to work as well as usual, he will find his way back to the top.

Nadal’s lowest point over the past few years came on home soil in Barcelona. After losing to Fabio Fognini, the Spaniard spent 20 minutes practically insulting his entire game. He had bypassed sadness straight to abject disgust and he branded his forehand - the best forehand in the history of tennis - “vulgar”. Two weeks later in Madrid, he was asked how it felt that, for the first time in his entire career, his game was the root of all his problems rather than his body.

“It's all about moments and all the moments are different,” he said.

“Different feelings, different situations on the career of everyone. You have to pass all these moments.

"(Now) I am on the court. If I am on the court, I have the chance to play well and win matches. I am fit; I don't have injuries; and I cannot forget to play tennis in six months.“

By his body language and all his words, Nadal seemed to believe that this year at Roland Garros really could have marked the definitive return of the good moments. Even when he lost earlier this year, he proclaimed his famous mental strength back. When he finally began to win, moving through 13 consecutive matches during the clay season in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Madrid, it was the mentality that dragged him through.

Nadal explained that the problem with his wrist began during the clay season, but it wasn’t until he started playing that the pain began to increase point by point. Nadal’s wrist was deteriorating, despite his confidence remaining in the clouds. He still showed up in his first round match and destroyed a hapless, outmatched Sam Groth in the quickest Roland Garros match of his career. Nadal arrived in his second round match having “risked” his wrist with an injection, yet he still spent 90 minutes whipping violent, screaming forehands down the line with it. Perhaps, just perhaps, the game would follow on the court it was built for.

“I would have preferred if this had been last year,” Nadal said in the press conference.

“We had done our homework. I was moving forward. I played at very high level for several weeks.

"Unfortunately, this has to stop now.”

Nadal will be back, and from his own words, probably in a short period of time. The Spaniard was adamant that the injury isn’t serious and that there are no long term implications to his health.

He could still compete in Wimbledon or he could be out until the Olympics, but continuing to play would have escalated the wrist into an alarming problem.

However, Nadal’s admission that he wished the injury had arrived last year is a crushing recognition of the significance of this setback. After the endless process that led him back on the road to confidence and a return to once again playing like himself, his body has rendered all the effort and suffering useless. Nadal really believed that if he worked, stayed healthy and continued down the path, success would return. His second commandment failed him yet again.

The wrist of the playing hand is perhaps the most pivotal body part of a tennis. Once the pain ends and the recovery finishes, Nadal will have to start from scratch. He’ll have to regain the feeling on his strokes, then the confidence, and finally he’ll have to seek to rediscover the quality of play that hadn’t even properly returned yet.

He’ll work, he’ll fight, and nobody would doubt that he will strive return even stronger. He probably will.

But six days shy of his 30th birthday, his attempts to progress have been rocked by injury yet again. It is a devastating blow, even though the injury isn’t serious. By now, Rafael Nadal surely knows that time will not always return his embraces, and it’s certainly not on his side.