Nadal to miss Indian Wells, Miami due to lingering hip injury

Spain's tennis great Rafael Nadal has announced that his lingering hip injury will prevent him from playing in this month's Indian Wells Masters and Miami Open tournaments, adding that his goal is to recover in time for the clay-court season.

"Unfortunately, the injury I suffered in Acapulco before starting the tournament is in the same area as the one suffered in Melbourne. I won't be able to play in Miami or Indian Wells as I need to recover," Nadal said in a statement posted on his Facebook page on Friday.

That injury forced the Spaniard to retire in the fifth set of his Australian Open quarter-final match against Croatia's Marin Cilic in January and also prevented him from participating in this week's Mexican Open, reports Efe.

"I will miss you and I will do everything that's possible to be back there in 2019," he added.

The Indian Wells Masters and the Miami Open are two of the biggest hard-court tournaments on the tennis calendar.

But Nadal's priority every year is the clay-court season and in particular the French Open, a Grand Slam event held in late May and early June that the Spaniard has won a record 10 times.