Rafa Nadal’s body must be screaming ‘retirement’ at him.
It was horrible to watch such an all-time sporting great in as much pain as he was before he had to call a halt to his second round game in the Australian Open.
Nobody can question his warrior mindset.
He’ll have put himself through the pain barrier more times than any of us can imagine.
And he was doing it again in Melbourne.
But even a warrior mindset isn’t enough at times.
I was lucky that I came to the conclusion myself that I wanted to bow out on a high, on my terms.
And it wasn’t a case of somebody telling me what I wasn’t seeing for myself.
I don’t know how I would have reacted if that had been the case.
Always a pleasure, @RafaelNadal 🫶#AusOpen • #AO2023 pic.twitter.com/CdnOMzYDK0
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 18, 2023
Would it have made me more likely to think ‘I’ll prove you wrong?’ Or would it have made me think ‘yeah, you’re right?’
In my opinion, it comes down to who you trust.
I’m at Bisham Abbey just now to speak to young athletes for a European Youth Olympics day.
And an important message I’ve been giving them is the importance of the circle you build around you.
Make sure you believe in them 100% and they believe in you.
That may sound like stating the obvious but it does get less clear from time to time.
Throughout my career there were people who have dipped in and out.
I’ve put trust in them and it’s turned out that trust was misplaced.
I’d be very surprised if someone hasn’t had that retirement conversation with Nadal but maybe it’s not been the right person and maybe that ‘one more time’ determination to keep going hasn’t left him.
Put it this way, if Novak Djokovic retired tomorrow I’m pretty sure Nadal would follow quickly.
For me the happy ending was a big thing and I feel so fortunate that I came to that conclusion.
The battle to finish with the most Grand Slams is consuming both of them.
It probably was for Roger Federer until he realised it was beyond him to better the numbers of the other two.
Such a unique race to the top that Nadal is involved in is probably going to make that hard for him to see.
It’s probably going to take an injury to bring the curtain down unfortunately.
Either that or somebody very, very close to him is going to have to be very persuasive with the ‘enough is enough, Rafa’ chat!
It’s getting close to the first anniversary of our Olympic win and the rest of the team had a special way to celebrate the milestone on Wednesday.
Hailey, Jen, Mili, Vicky and Dave Murdoch were all at Holyrood to receive their MBEs.
A special, special day ♥️🎖️
It was such an honour to receive an MBE from HRH The Princess Royal at Holyrood today alongside @Team_Muirhead. A day I will never forget! pic.twitter.com/f9c2OcVxh6
— Mili Smith MBE (@milismithh_) January 18, 2023
I know that they’ll all have enjoyed being presented with their medals by Princess Anne because she’s been such a great backer of Scottish sport over the years.
You can tell she takes a genuine interest.
A bit like myself, Mili will see it as a lovely way to cap off a curling career now that it’s over.
For Hailey and Jen, recognition like this will give them added fuel to go on and win more medals.
Only three more years of grind until the Winter Olympics in Italy, girls!
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