‘Rafael Nadal has done nothing wrong,’ says Patrick McEnroe amid ‘unproven’ accusations

Patrick McEnroe has again urged people to end the narrative about Rafael Nadal and doping – unless they can prove it.

After winning Roland Garros, some have questioned the injections that Rafael Nadal took and the legality of them.

The World Anti-Doping Agency has publicly said it was legal, but a small number of road cyclists have said it would be considered ‘doping’ in their sport.

That is a sport still badly scarred by the actions of Lance Armstrong, and McEnroe says it is time that people stopped throwing unproven accusations at Nadal.

“He says he’s taking pain killers and I’ve got to believe him,” he said on the Holding Court Podcast.

“If you’re telling me he’s taking something else, well, then prove it. If you do prove it, well, then Lance Armstrong, he never proved it. He claimed that he took a bunch of tests as well.

“I don’t expect that to happen with Rafael Nadal because I don’t expect that he’s done anything like that at all.”

It is not the first time that Patrick McEnroe has gone into bat for Nadal on this issue, with him previously describing the accusations as ‘conspiracy theories.’

“I’m no Doctor, I don’t know exactly what they are. People, you know, there are conspiracy theorists now coming out in the tennis world,” he said.

“There’s one conspiracy that Nadal is doping, he’s taking some sort of drug.

“Look, they test him all the time at the majors and whatever they’re putting in his ankle, I think it’s just a painkiller.

“Again, I’m not a doctor, I don’t know exactly what it is, but if it was something that was against the rules he’d be caught.”