Back to practice, and back to the worry ...

There's no rest for the wicked, eh??

In this so-called "off season", where Rafa hit his last ball of the 2011 season on 4th December, he will hit his first of the 2012 season on 29th December.

But there's nothing wrong with the tennis schedule, is there, Feds??

So Rafa got back to work yesterday and will build up to the Australian Open with the Abu Dhabi exhibition, followed by the ATP tournament in Qatar and then on to the first Slam of the year. After Australia, Rafa is to take 3-4 weeks off.

But whilst we were drunk off the success of the Davis Cup and Rafa's marvellous turnaround to beat DelPotro, lets not forget that Rafa had to have an injection in his knee on Sunday. And there's obviously still an issue.

The practice pictures from today, clearly show him with the strapping on his left knee that he used to use all the time to help lift the patella, and on Twitter tonight, IB3's David Nadal (no relation) confirmed the following ...

"I have yet discomfort in the knee, in the coming weeks I'll review it to recover well."

Its not the news we want to hear. We've been free of stories such as this for quite a while now. So we can but hope ...