Former world number one Rafael Nadal is confident he will be able to return to full fitness for the 2015 Australian Open.

The 28-year-old Spaniard is recovering from surgery to remove his appendix, which saw him miss the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London last week.

Nadal has also battled knee, wrist and back problems, with his doctors confirming his rehabilitation included stem cell treatment.

The 14-time Grand Slam champion, though, feels positive he can return to competitive action in time for the first major at Melbourne Park, where he lost the 2014 final against Stanislas Wawrinka.

“It will be 10 or 12 days before I can practice again, so (I) will have all of December to try to put my body and my tennis at the right level to be competitive in January.

“I am going to work for it, that is my goal,” said Nadal, who took on former Brazil footballer Ronaldo in a head-to-head PokerStars table at London’s Hippodrome Casino, which saw him win $50,000 for charity on Tuesday night.

“I hope to be healthy enough to work as much as I need, and as I want, if that happens I really feel confident I can come back strong.”

Nadal continued: “During this year I had some periods when I had some problems in my back.

“I did not have the chance to compete with all of the things that happened to me. I have time enough to fix my back 100 per cent again.

“When you have been out of the tennis court for two months, when you practice again on the first day, you will not be 100 per cent.

“But the most important thing is I will be healthy to increase the practice every day and can then be around 100 per cent by the eighth of December then have one month to practice at 100 per cent.

“I will have a few days at an exhibition (event) in Abu Dhabi, which will help me arrive at the first official (ATP) competition of the year (2015) in Doha with normal conditions, being competitive.

“If that happens, then you can start increasing the level in every single match.”

Nadal felt the ATP World Tour Finals had been “strange”, with the O2 Arena crowd denied the chance to watch a showdown between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic after the Swiss player retired injured.

“I saw a little bit, but not a lot,” said Nadal.

“It was a really strange World Tour Finals, the strangest one I have ever seen. Normally when you play between the best eight players in the world, the matches should be close and be emotional, in this tournament, no one match was like this, only Roger against Stan in the semi-finals – but for the rest was a little bit strange.”

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