Nadal's doctor warns he should have a gentle recovery

Rafael Nadal's doctor, who has treated him throughout his career, has warned the Spaniard that he should be selective in tournaments he plays on his return from tendonitis.

Nadal played his first tournament in Chile last week, the first step on the road to a full recovery, but lost the final in his first tournament for 8 months.

"What you have to do in this case is select tournaments properly, enter the circuit progressively," Dr Angel Luiz Cotorro told BBC Sport.

"On clay, movements are less aggressive because of the possibility to skid, which helps the tendon to suffer less."

Cotorro, who is also the doctor to Spain's Davis Cup team, added: "A quick surface is more aggressive than any other because of the abrupt changes in movement, the sudden brakes."

Nadal has spoken out in recent weeks at the increasing number of hard court tournaments being added to the ATP tour, because of the injury risk they pose to players he warned.

"Can you imagine football players playing on cement?" Nadal said after losing in three sets to world number 73 Horacio Zeballos in Vina del Mar.

Dr. Angel Ruiz-Cotorro continued to say: "It's true the problems derived from Rafa's foot injury made us make some changes to the insole, but more than nine years of high-level competition have caused this tendon to have this type of injury," added Cotorro.

"The important aspect here is to provide progressive loads on the tendon in order to allow the tendon regenerate its fibres and readapt to training and then competition."