Rafael Nadal had over a month between the Australian Open and Acapulco to recover from his hip injury. As it turned out, this wasn't enough as the Spaniard had to pull out of Acapulco, and then Indian Wells and Miami. Interviewed by El Pais, his long-time doctor Angel Ruiz Cotorro spoke about Nadal's latest setback that caught him off-guard during a training session with Adrian Mannarino, one day before the start of the matches in Acapulco.

'When you are about to compete and in your first training session [and] this happens, obviously it influences you and it's hard,' Cotorro admitted. 'It's in a muscle and not in a tendon, which would have been much worse.

The negative thing is that pain is back in an already affected zone and this is not something unusual. Rafa was practicing in a normal way and everything was going well. We need to be optimistic, because we have always been so, but also realistic and now, seeing what happened, we have to be as cautious as possible.

Rafa will be back when he will be doing well.' Nadal is aiming to return to the Tour in the clay season, specifically in Monte Carlo in April. 'We hope that he will be recovered for the clay-court season, that's the goal.

Rafa should rest for two or three weeks, then have a progressive recovery, but it always depends on how everything works. You have to monitor this injury closely, so we will go week-by-week, without rushing.' ALSO READ: Roger Federer promotes the new Air Max RF 95 shoes!