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Rafael Nadal provides knee injury update as he sets return date

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Rafael Nadal provides knee injury update as he sets return date — Nadal is gearing up for a return to action (Picture: Getty)

Rafael Nadal has issued a positive update as he continues to step up his recovery from a knee injury and is hopeful of competing at both the Mubadala World Tennis Championship and the Brisbane International ahead of the Australian Open.

The Spaniard struggled with a knee problem in the back end of the season, skipping Basel and withdrawing from both the Paris Masters and ATP Finals at the O2 in London due to the problem.

Given his lengthy list of historic knee issues, there were concerns about whether the world No. 1 would be fully fit at the start of the new season.

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But, after returning to training, he is confident of being able to compete at the exhibition event in Abu Dhabi at the end of December, where Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka are also scheduled to play, before joining Andy Murray in Brisbane ahead of the first Slam of 2018.

‘It’s true that I finished with an injury, so I’ve taken a bit of time to recover well,’ the 16-time Grand Slam champion said.

‘That’s why I’ve taken a couple of weeks off and I did my treatment and I need to start again, as I said before, slow. So, that’s my goal: try to be ready for the beginning (of the season).

‘I am going to try to play in Abu Dhabi and Brisbane before Australia, so that will be the ideal situation. And let’s try to make that happen.’