Rafael Nadal said Saturday that he expects he will need five months to recover from arthroscopic surgery for a left hip flexor injury, effectively ruling him out for the rest of 2023 ATP tournament season.

"Hello everyone. As you know last night I had surgery. Everything went well and the arthroscopy was on the left psoas tendon that has kept me out of competition since January," Nadal wrote in Spanish on Twitter.

"An old injury to the labrum of my left hip was also (fixed) which will surely help the better evolution of the tendon. I want to thank doctors Marc Philippon, Jaume Vilaro and Angel Ruiz-Cotorro for their work.

"I will start progressive functional rehabilitation immediately and the normal recovery process they tell me is 5 months, if all goes well."

The 36-year-old Spaniard, who plans to retire after the 2024 season, is missing his signature tournament, the French Open, where he is a 14-time champion. He has 92 career titles and has won 22 Grand Slam singles championships -- the men's record for majors he shares with Serbia's Novak Djokovic, who won his match Friday in Paris.

The third seed, Djokovic downed No. 29 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5), 6-2 in the third round.

Djokovic has a chance to overtake Nadal in Paris. If he doesn't, Djokovic also will have chances at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open this summer.

Nadal has not competed since hurting the hip during a loss to Mackenzie McDonald in the second round of the Australian Open on Jan. 18, and is 1-3 this season. He has been beaten in seven of his past nine matches overall, starting with a loss to Frances Tiafoe in the fourth round of the U.S. Open in September.

--Field Level Media