Juan Martin del Potro opens up on injury anguish: 'A never-ending nightmare'

Juan Martin del Potro is getting raw and real about just how much his career-ending knee problem has disrupted his life.

The Argentine's story of woe, and the premature demise of his tennis career, is well known: Del Potro, who was previously disrupted by a wrist injury at the peak of his tennis powers shortly after he won the 2009 US Open, first suffered the fateful knee injury at the 2018 Shanghai Masters, and reinjured it less than a year later at the Queen's Club.

But since then, as he detailed in an Instagram vicdeo in 11 minutes this week in Spanish, it's been "a never-ending nightmare," consisting of more than a half-dozen surgeries, countless injections, and complications that have left him unable to do even basic day-to-day activities. His last tour-level match, a loss to fellow Argentine Federico Delbonis in Buenos Aires two seasons ago, wasn't the end of the story, he says.

Read more: Pain, redemption marked gentle giant Juan Martin del Potro’s tennis journey

"I was never able to climb stairs without pain. I hurts when I drive, It hurts many times when I go to sleep," he confessed.

"My daily life isn't what I would like it to be."

Just to function, del Potro says, he has to take multiple medications to alleviate both his chronic pain as well as the anxiety that's developed from his saga, but they've caused him to gain weight. Between his last match and the present day, he has remained hopeful that surgical intervention would allow him to make a proper return for a final farewell on his own terms, which he hoped to do at the 2023 US Open.

While he has appeared at several exhibitions in the two-plus years since he last struck a ball at an ATP tournament, including in New York this year, his body hasn't cooperated, and he's had several other procedures that he hadn't previously shared publicly.

"Every time they put me the anesthesia I hoped that the problem would be solved and after two, three months I was always calling the doctors to tell them that the surgery didn't work," he said.

He even revealed that doctors have said that at 31 years old, he is too young for knee replacement surgery, and it's a reccomendation that has left him disappointed.

"I hope this will finish someday," he said, "because I want to live my life without pain."

After his emotional confession, del Potro received support not just from tennis fans but fellow players on social media, with one-time rival John Isner writing, "You are adored everywhere! Stay strong and resilient."

Despite these setbacks, del Potro is still determined to say goodbye to tennis on his own terms, and he hopes that moment will come when he faces Novak Djokovic in an exhibition match in Buenos Aires later this week. Hoping to be "in the best shape possible" for the Dec. 1 match, del Potro says he's already been dieting, losing weight and training as comprehensively as he can.

"It's a match to say goodbye," he said. "Djokovic was very generous in accepting my invitation. I want to give him all the love possible.

"If at least for one, two or three hours I can be in peace and happy on a tennis court, it will be beautiful."