Can Rafa really resist going full throttle on court?

A hard-drinking, daredevil motorcyclist who personified showmanship and a clean-living, hard-running semi-saint with a tennis racket. What could they have in common? Two things.

- Rohit Brijnath

First, the late Evel Knievel and Rafael Nadal did things to their body which aren't to be recommended.

Nadal has a medical file as thick as a copy of Gray's Anatomy.

Knievel's broken bones were repaired using titanium and aluminium plates, but as The New York Times wrote, "he was in so many accidents that he occasionally broke some of his metal parts, too".

But it's the second thing which matters. Whether flying over crates of rattlesnakes or chasing a ball, both men knew only one way to live. At full throttle. To stretch will, tendon, ambition, body to their highest point.

And why this matters is because Nadal, in a series of three recent videos, said something rather profound. "I have internalised what I have had throughout my life, which is to demand (from) myself the maximum. And right now what I really hope is to be able to not do that." There is a sub-species called the Przewalski's horse, which is often considered the last remaining wild horse on the planet, and Nadal has always reminded me of them. He feels untamed. But now he needs reins.

As he, 37, returns to competitive tennis after 11 months, full throttle won't work. He'll always want to fight, but maybe he has to change the way he fights.