Former world No. 3, Juan Martin Del Potro (36 years old) took to his social networks to talk about his daily life. After a career ruined by repeated injuries, the Argentinian is undermined by chronic pain.
His body doesn’t seem determined to give him a little respite. A few days before a return to the forefront during an exhibition match against Novak Djokovic (this Sunday, December 1 in Buenos Aires), almost three years after his last appearance on the professional circuit, Juan Martin Del Potro (36 years old) spoke to talk about the ordeal he experiences on a daily basis due to chronic pain.
During his career, the Argentinian, winner of the 2009 US Open, was unfortunately unable to express his potential over a long period of time due to repeated injuries. Now that his life as a top athlete is behind him, he has decided to speak in front of the camera, in a video published on his social networks. “To share with you the story of my last years,” he wrote on Instagram.
Episode 76: Gracias Del Potro, it was huge!
“I haven’t run since I was 31, I can’t climb stairs, it hurts when I drive, it hurts when I go to bed, I can’t kick a ball, I don’t “I’ve never been able to play tennis properly again,” he explains. “It’s a never-ending nightmare. I hope one day it will stop. I want to live without pain.”
“More than a hundred injections”
In 2022, he underwent a fifth and then a sixth operation on his right knee. “I returned to the United States, I had more than a hundred injections, infiltrations everywhere, in a hip, a leg, my back… It’s daily suffering. It’s my life since my last match. “
“I get up and take six or seven pills, an anti-inflammatory, a painkiller and another for anxiety,” he continues. “Emotional pain surpasses physical pain. I felt strong at the time in the face of these obstacles, but I realized that I am not that strong… This is not the life I wanted. It’s terrible. At times, I have no more strength. I’m not indestructible. I often play a role when I feel bad.”
Djokovic, “the last challenge (he) was waiting for”
While he considers himself “trapped in a body that does not respond”, Juan Martin Del Potro is in the dark regarding the sequence of events. Fitting a prosthesis is an option considered by some doctors, while other specialists assure that he is too young. “Do I still have to spend fifteen years of my life like this so that at 50, they install a prosthesis in me and I can live more or less correctly at 60?”, asks the Argentinian.
Del Potro, who never officially announced his retirement, played his last official match in February 2022 in Buenos Aires. Facing Djokovic, he expects to experience a great moment. “I always had the impression that this would not be the end of my career,” he assured last September. “I feel like I still have something in store. This will be the last challenge I’ve been waiting for.”
