Nadal reveals surgery and painkillers behind final years on tour

Rafael Nadal used a new documentary to lay bare the price of extending an elite career: surgery that removed feeling in his foot, repeated painkiller use, and a body pushed to the edge of lasting damage.

RAFA, a four-part Netflix series that premiered on May 29, 2026, followed Nadal through his final year on the ATP Tour in 2024 with never-before-seen archival footage and access to his family and inner circle. Directed by Zach Heinzerling and produced with Skydance Sports, the project also included interviews with Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and John McEnroe.

At the center of Nadal’s story was Müller-Weiss syndrome, the rare degenerative disease of the adult navicular bone that causes chronic midfoot pain and deformity. Medical sources describe it as a form of osteonecrosis, or avascular necrosis, in which bone tissue dies from loss of blood supply and can deteriorate until it crumbles. Nadal was diagnosed with the condition in 2005, and the documentary reportedly also showed a broken scaphoid in his foot and never-before-seen images of the damage.

The former world No. 1 said he had already spent years trying to manage the pain before retiring from professional tennis after the Davis Cup Finals in Malaga in November 2024. Nadal had announced in October 2024 that his final event would come at the team competition in Spain, held from November 19-24, as he closed a career that had been defined not only by Grand Slam titles but by the medical toll required to keep competing.

Nadal also said he had repeatedly turned down documentary projects during his playing career, but agreed to this one after deciding he had found the right people to tell the story. The result was an unusually direct account of how top-level sport can demand more than training and talent, forcing athletes into a cycle of pain management, invasive treatment and constant negotiation with long-term harm.