The 30-year-old suffered a shock second-round exit at the Shanghai Masters in October that resulted in the Spaniard calling an early end to his season. He did announce then that he would join the likes of Andy Murray, Milos Raonic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in the end of December.

After suffering an injury at the French Open, Nadal returned quickly to play at the Rio Olympics where he won gold in doubles but was ousted by Argentine Juan Matin del Potro in the singles.

“This year I was a little bit unlucky with the wrist injury because I was playing great so I’m looking forward to getting back to that level before I had my accident in Roland Garros… that’s my motivation now.”

The King of Clay appears to be a shadow of the player that went toe to toe with Roger Federer in the Swiss legend’s heyday. He now has added Carlos Moya to his coaching staff and is excited at the prospect of working with the 1998 French Open winner along with his regular coach Toni Nadal.

“With my normal team I had an amazing results during my career and I’m looking for something... to add something else more to the team.

“Carlos knows me very well and I believe that he has a lot of experience on the Tour. He knows how I compete, the same like Toni and Francisco (Roig) but it’s a good improvement for me to have another person that I think will be important for me in my career so I have confidence in him.”