Juan Martin del Potro has detailed the heartbreaking reality of his knee injury as he takes “seven pills a day” and lives a “never-ending nightmare”.
The former world No. 3 injured his knee at Queen’s in 2019 and has been in pain ever since, having multiple unsuccessful surgeries.
Del Potro now wants to have prosthesis surgery to improve the quality of his life but has been told to wait another 15 years.
Del Potro will say farewell to tennis this Sunday in an exhibition match with Novak Djokovic in his home of Argentina. The 36-year-old has not played a match since retiring in Buenos Aires in 2022 – his first appearance since getting injured three years earlier.
After undergoing eight surgeries and giving up any hope of a comeback, the 2009 US Open champion wants to have one last goodbye. Ahead of the exhibition, Del Potro shed light on his injury hell in a lengthy video shared on social media.
“Nobody knew this, but the day after I played my last match against [Federico] Delbonis, I took a flight to Switzerland and I had my fifth knee surgery,” he said, recalling his attempts to return after retiring in 2022.
“Since that I never made my surgeries public again as I found some peace in the press conference before that match against Federico, telling it would probably be my last match. People stopped asking me constantly when I would comeback and play again.
“I did all this process secretly and if it worked I would announce that I would comeback. I spent two months in Switzerland, in a village close to Basel trying to rehabilitate and it didn’t work.
“After two and a half months I had my sixth surgery. I went back to the USA. More rehab, over 100 injections everywhere. Infiltrations… daily suffering. It’s been my life since that match vs Federico.”
Del Potro fractured his right kneecap at the 2018 Shanghai Masters. He successfully returned to competition a few months later but injured the same knee at Queen’s in 2019. The Argentine initially hoped to be back by the end of the year.
He explained: “When I had my first surgery in June, the doctor told me I would play in three months. I even signed in for three indoor tournaments at the end of the year.
“Since that moment, I was never able to climb stairs without pain. I hurts when I drive, It hurts many times when I go to sleep. It’s been a never-ending nightmare.
“I’m still looking everyday for a solution. It all started with that first surgery. Every time I think about that I still get emotional. I feel terrible.”
Now, Del Potro can’t live a normal life without pain. “My daily life isn’t what I would like it to be. I can’t play football, I can’t play padel. It’s terrible. They took me the chance to do what I loved the most, which was to play tennis,” he continued.
“It’s very tough. There are moments where I have no more strength. I’m not indestructible. I have good things, bad things but most of the times I have to fake it and put on a good face, but many times I feel terrible.
“Every day when I wake up I have to take six or seven pils. Gastric protectors, anti-inflammatories, one for anxiety. Then the pils made me gain weight so they told me to stop eating some things.”
The injury has understandably taken a mental toll on the Olympic silver medallist. Del Potro added: “One thing are the stones that can appear in your way, like the injuries that can affect all athletes, but the other thing is the emotional pain.
“I felt so powerful when facing those obstacles, but after all I understood that I’m not that strong. That knee beat me. I had eight surgeries, with doctors all around the world. Every time they put me under anesthesia I hoped that the problem would be solved and after two or three months I was always calling the doctors to tell them that the surgery didn’t work.”
Del Potro is hopeful that prosthesis surgery can improve his life but the 36-year-old has been told to wait. “There are doctors that tell me that I can put a prosthesis and regain some life quality. But others tell me that I’m too young for a prosthesis,” he said.
“They tell me to wait till I’m 50. But… I was 31 years old I can’t run, I can climb stairs, can’t kick a ball, never played tennis again. I need to wait 15 years more of this? It’s terrible. I hope this will finish someday. Because I want to live my life without pain.”
It’s been a long and heartbreaking road for Del Potro. But the Argentine will get his wish to have a happy final memory on a tennis court this weekend when he faces Djokovic in a match dubbed The Final Challenge.
