When Rafael Nadal says he is ready, he means it.

It is eight years since the Spaniard won his only Australian Open title and after an injury-blighted 2016, there have been plenty of people quick to write off his chances of adding a second.

But one look at Nadal yesterday would have been enough to see that, having recovered from the wrist injury he suffered in mid-summer last year, he means business, and since his business is winning grand slams, the rest should take heed.

“If I don't believe that I can be competitive, and when I mean competitive, [I mean] fighting for the things that I fought for during the last 10 years, I will be probably playing golf or fishing at home,” he said yesterday. “I am being honest with this.

“If I am here it is because I believe – I don't know [if it will be] here, I don't know [if it will be] Rotterdam in a couple weeks, in Acapulco, Indian Wells, Miami, and Roland Garros, I don't know [but] I can fight for the things that really motivate me.”

They were ominous words from a man who won the most recent of his 14 grand slam titles at the French Open in 2015, and words that will undoubtedly make their way back to Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic, the two title favourites.

Nadal, who made the final in Melbourne in 2012 and 2014, was restricted in 2016 by the left wrist injury he first suffered just before the French Open in May, which forced him to retire at Roland Garros before his third-round match.

It was a painful departure, in more ways than one, for Nadal had worked himself back into the kind of form that took him to nine French Open titles.

After that, he missed Wimbledon and though he returned at the Olympics to win the gold medal in doubles, he barely played after the US Open and it was only after a break and a good off-season that he began to feel 100 per cent again.

“I am good, I think I am ready,” he said. “I think I practised very well for one month and a half in Mallorca. I had a good start of the season in Abu Dhabi and Brisbane. I am practising well this year, the week before.”

Nadal said he was injury-free if not entirely pain-free – “pain-free is a long time ago,” he said, with a smile – and he will go into his first-round match with Florian Mayer of Germany with growing confidence that he can at the very least climb from his ranking of ninth and perhaps add to his grand slam tally.

“I am enjoying my tennis,” he said. “I am coming back on the Tour after a while. People can think is not that much because I stopped after Shanghai. But being honest and being realistic, after Roland Garros, the only tournament I played with OK conditions, not 100 percent conditions, was the US Open.

“Because at the Olympics, even if was a great event, I still had a lot of pain on the wrist. Then I had an edema on the hand, so it was difficult to play. I played because I didn't want to stop again. I wanted to keep trying.

“I went to Beijing and Shanghai with too much pain. So during the last seven months, I played just a couple of matches. That's the real thing. I am playing tennis because I am happy doing what I am doing.”

The one change in the Nadal camp this year is the addition of Carlos Moya, who jumped at the chance to join his old friend after his role as coach of Milos Raonic ended in late 2016.

Moya was Nadal’s mentor when he first came on the Tour and Nadal said now was the right time to add something to his coaching set-up, alongside his uncle, Toni Nadal.

“I know him very well,” Nadal said, “and I know he wants the best for me. He knows my personality, he knows my game, too. Could be a good help for me and at the same time for the rest of the team, to have somebody like him on the team is always something that I am very happy with because it is good to have good people in your team.”

“He's a person that I practised with during almost all my career since I was 15 until he retired. Even last year sometimes when he was in Mallorca or two years ago, I was practising, hitting sometimes with him.

“It’s not a big deal. He is close to my house. He lives in Mallorca, too. He is going to help us with the academy, too. That's something that I am very happy with, too. It is important for the academy to have somebody like Carlos that can be a big help for us and for the kids, too. It is very special to have him on the team and I am very happy.”

The last time Nadal was fully fit, he won the French Open. If we take him at his word, he might just be ready to win again.