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London - Rafael Nadal has vowed to play through the pain barrier to keep his Wimbledon challenge alive.
Nadal has been struggling with a knee injury since arriving at the All England Club last week and the world number one has needed pain killers and physiotherapy to keep the problem at bay.
The French Open champion fights a constant battle with his knees after tendinitis forced him to miss Wimbledon last year when he would have gone into the event as the defending champion.
Once Wimbledon is out of the way Nadal plans to take time off to allow the injury to settle down, but for the next five days he is determined to push the limits of what his body can take as he tries to regain the men's singles crown he won in 2008.
"I take anti-inflammatories and I did a lot of treatment with the physio and with the doctor," Nadal said.
"It was better (against Mathieu). I didn't feel pain but you never know. It's there, but it wasn't a problem this time. Hopefully it is going to be fine for the next match too."
Nadal will be encouraged by the way he routed France's Paul-Henri Mathieu on Monday to set up a quarter-final clash with Swedish sixth seed Robin Soderling.
The second seed has plenty of history with the feisty Soderling and the tie promises to be an explosive encounter.
Soderling once irritated Nadal by mimicking his habit of pulling at his shorts before serving, as well as imitating his slow build-up to each point.
Nadal made it clear he was not happy with the perceived insult, although he insists he has not had any problems with Soderling since.
"I had a little bit of a problem (with Soderling) in this tournament a few years ago. After that I never had any problem with him," Nadal said.
Nadal will go into the match as favourite after drubbing Soderling in three sets in the French Open final recently, but the Swede can point to his win at the same venue 12 months ago as proof that the Spaniard can be beaten.
While Nadal knows it will be harder to beat Soderling on grass than clay, he has no doubts he can advance to the last four.
"I think the match is completely different (to the French Open final) because it's on grass than on clay," Nadal said.
"His game is good on every surface but it is probably even more difficult to stop him here, because the ball goes faster and it is going to be very difficult to return and difficult to stop him from the baseline.
"I think he's playing with big confidence and a big serve. So he's playing great. It is going to be a very difficult match for me I think. But hopefully for him, too."
