BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Rafael Nadal has undergone surgery to treat pain and gain mobility in his right hand, the retired tennis great said on Friday.
The 22-time Grand Slam champion, who plays left-handed, said in an X post that he had been dealing with the issue "for a long time.”
Nadal accompanied the social media post with a photo of himself with his right arm bandaged and in a sling. He also quipped that he “won’t be able to play the Australian Open,” the first major of next year.
The surgery was “aimed at relieving pain and restoring mobility” of the joint at the base of his right thumb, according to a separate statement from Nadal’s representative. The operation was performed at a private health clinic in Barcelona.
The 39-year-old Nadal retired from tennis in November 2024, finally abandoning hope that he could prolong his immensely successful career after playing through various injuries.
In May, Nadal said at a ceremony to celebrate his record 14 French Open titles in Paris that he hadn’t touched a racket in the six months following his last professional match, a loss with Spain at the Davis Cup 13 months ago.
Last month, video circulated of him hitting balls with pro player Alexandra Eala at Nadal's academy on his home island of Mallorca.
FILE - Spain's Rafael Nadal during a tribute after playing his last match as a professional tennis player in the Davis Cup quarterfinals at the Martin Carpena Sports Hall in Malaga, southern Spain, on Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez, File)
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Animal-shaped stencils a mother made from a concentration camp shoe and gave to her son for Christmas are among items in a new permanent exhibition at the Auschwitz museum, located on the site of the largest Nazi death camp.
Other items on display as officials unveiled the exhibition Friday included a paper bag for holding cement that was used as thermal underwear, and drawings made in secret by prisoners. The objects, detailing the everyday experiences of Auschwitz prisoners, were displayed in blocs 8 and 9 of the former Nazi concentration camp.
Magdalena Urbaniak, the exhibition's coordinator, said it was difficult and painful to imagine what the woman went through when she crafted the stencils from a shoe.
“It’s hard to describe this feeling, we can’t even understand this situation, the extreme situation in which this mother found herself in the camp, what emotions she experienced to do something for her child, to lift his spirits and contribute to his survival,” she said.
The new exhibition illustrates elements of the camp routine from the morning gong, through washing, meals and forced labor to evenings in the camp barracks. It gives visitors a glimpse into the feelings experienced by prisoners, from extreme hunger and cold to fear and hopelessness.
“Witnesses are passing away, the world is changing, technologies are changing, and new generations are emerging, requiring a new approach to the subject," Andrzej Kacorzyk, the deputy director of the Auschwitz museum, told The Associated Press. "Hence the need to portray humanity, the need to portray this individual fate.”
Nazi Germany built more than 40 concentration, labor and extermination camps at this location in occupied Poland during World War II.
The Nazis established the Auschwitz I camp in 1940 to imprison Poles, while Auschwitz II-Birkenau was opened two years later and became the primary site of the extermination of Jews during the Holocaust.
Nazi German forces ultimately murdered some 1.1 million people at the complex.
While most of the victims of the Holocaust were Jews killed on an industrial scale, Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, gay people and others were also targeted for elimination.
The museum operating today on the site of the former Auschwitz camps was established in 1947 and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The museum is currently in the process of changing its permanent exhibition, which had been in place for decades. Officials say the idea is to reflect new knowledge about Holocaust history as well as the evolving demographic of visitors.
The new permanent exhibition is being built on the ground floors of six blocks of the former Auschwitz I camp. The first phase of the museum’s modernization is complete with the opening of the exhibition in blocks 8 and 9.
A second phase, including an exhibition dedicated to the Holocaust in blocks 6 and 7, will be finalized in 2027. The third and final stage, represented by an exhibition describing the camp as an institution, located in blocks 4 and 5, is scheduled for completion in 2030.
FILE - The sun lights the buildings behind the entrance of the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in Oswiecim, Germany, Dec. 6, 2019. (Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)
FILE - The railway tracks where hundred thousands of people arrived to be directed to the gas chambers inside the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz Birkenau, or Auschwitz II, are pictured in Oswiecim, Poland, on Dec. 7, 2019. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, file)
Photographs from prisoners personal file cards displayed in its new permanent exhibition at the Nazi death Camp Auschwitz in Oswiecim, Poland, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafal Niedzielski)
A photojournalist takes photos of sketches made by survivors after their liberation from Auschwitz and displayed near a whip, used in the Camp, in its new permanent exhibition at the former Nazi Death Camp Auschwitz in Oswiecim, Poland, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Rafal Niedzielski)
