Rafael Nadal reveals knee injury's role in keeping him away from favourite pastime

Rafael Nadal revealed that he has given up water sports for the moment as it is not good for his knees, but is keen to resume it once he hangs up his racket.

The Spaniard made it clear that the ocean is one of his favourite places to spend his down time when he is not on the tennis court, but he is currently limited to aquatic exercises when it benefits his injuries.

Nadal has struggled with knee injury on a number of occasions during his career with the most recent setback coming at the end of the 2017 season. The 31-year-old had one of his best seasons in recent years having won six titles including two Grand Slams and ending the year as the top ranked player in the world for the fourth time in his career.

However, the end of the campaign was not as envisaged as he had to pull out of three events due to the recurrence of a knee injury. He missed the Swiss Indoors in Basel, pulled out midway through the Paris Masters and the ATP Finals in London. He is currently recovering and is expected to return to action at the end of the year at the Mubadala Tennis World Championships in Abu Dhabi.

"Whenever I can I try to swim and snorkel, to do everything I can in the water," Nadal said talking about his love for the ocean, as quoted by the Express.

"Sometimes I also do aquatic exercises, especially in case of injury, because everything you can do in the water is very important to recover well.

"But I do not practise water sports regularly, at least now. It would not be good for my knees," he explained. "I do not do water sports for health reasons, but in the future I would love to take it up again, of course."