"Being 100% honest, I can't guarantee it" - Rafael Nadal not confident of playing in the Australia Open

Spain's Rafael Nadal has said he cannot guarantee he will be at Melbourne in time for the Australian Open in January next year after he had returned to action at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi.

The 35-year-old's comeback at the exhibition event was his first tournament appearance since the Citi Open which held in Washington earlier in August.

The 20 time Grand slam champion had spent four months on the sidelines nursing a foot injury.

Nadal was previously knocked out at the semi-finals of the Roland Garros and was forced to pull out of the Tokyo Olympics, the U.S Open and Wimbledon due to injuries,

"The idea is to go out there and try my best in Australia...Being 100% honest, I can't guarantee it.

I need to speak with my team", Nadal admitted.

However, Australian Open Chief, Craig Tiley has remained confident Nadal would participate in January's tournament despite testing positive for COVID -19.

Nadal caught the virus while playing at an exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi last week and has said he would make a decision on his future tournaments depending on his evolution in the coming weeks.

"It's been more than six months since the last real official match. Things are difficult.. and i accept that.

I was able to compete in both matches and even had my chances, so if we put that in perspective it's a very positive thing.

I went through this process unfortunately a lot of times in my tennis career but i need to practice and i need to be healthy enough to go through this process.

If that happens, i'm confident that i'll be back", Nadal stated.

Nadal is currently ranked 6th on the ATP rankings and has also said that he would not have returned to tennis if he didn't feel he was competitive enough to challenge for the biggest titles in the sport.

"I am not playing for the money or just for fun, I am playing to keep achieving goals or at least to enjoy the process to try and achieve my goals

If you don't achieve it, it's fine but motivation and passion is still there" he added.

The Australian Open is scheduled to kick off from January 17 next year.