Reuters/Madrid

Rafa Nadal is expected to be released from a clinic in Barcelona yesterday after undergoing a successful appendectomy, the world number three’s spokesman said.

“Rafa feeling well, surgery went well, if everything goes as planned out of the hospital tomorrow,” spokesman Benito Perez-Barbadillo said on his company’s Twitter feed (@b1pr) on Monday.

After losing in Basel last month, Spaniard Nadal announced that his difficult 2014 season, when he has endured injury, illness and worrying defeats, was over and he would be having surgery for appendicitis.

The 28-year-old is aiming to return at the Qatar Open in Doha on Jan. 5 - a tournament he won this year before his body started letting him down.

Nadal will speak to the media on Tuesday, assuming he is well enough to be discharged, Perez-Barbadillo said.

Nadal missed last week’s Paris Masters event and will also be absent from the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London, where he has twice reached the final.

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