Rafa starts stem-cell treatment for back injury during post-appendicitis rest break
Wednesday, November 12, 2014 @ 10:38 AM
SPAIN'S Rafael Nadal is about to undergo a five-week course of treatment using stem cells in an attempt to heal his back injury which began to make itself felt during the Australian Open final in January.
The 28-year-old from Manacor, Mallorca, has just come out of the Quirón Teknon hospital in Barcelona where he was operated on for appendicitis, a condition that was not diagnosed straight away when he was examined in Shanghai.
By the time he got to hospital in Spain and tests confirmed it was indeed his appendix, Rafa had to wait another day until the large quantities of antibiotics he had taken were out of his system – but once surgeons had opened him up, they found that his condition had reached a very serious stage.
They admitted that they had literally caught it in time and, had the operation been delayed much longer, the situation would have been very touch-and-go.
This was the latest episode in a turbulent year for the former ATP number one, who has won 14 Grand Slam titles.
Rafa believed his back pain in Australia was merely a passing phenomenon, but it continued to drag him down for another six months – and just weeks later, he injured his right wrist.
He had already been told that the 'miracle' stem-cell treatment for his back would require several weeks of total rest, but did not start it in summer when he was off with his wrist injury as he had been confident of playing in the US Open and the treatment would not have been finished in time.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com