Milos Raonic hopes the return of his adductor injury during his Australian Open quarter-final defeat to Rafael Nadal is not too serious.

The world number three has been hampered by the problem during his career and has had surgery to address it in the past.

He aggravated the muscle at the Brisbane International this month and was troubled by it again midway through the second set against Nadal, who triumphed 6-4 7-6 (9-7) 6-4.

After treatment he returned with strapping on his thigh and, although it did not hamper his game, he was unable to stop the Nadal revival.

"I hope it's nothing too serious. It's my adductor again," he told his post-match media conference.

"Sort of the back story is another part of the adductor I damaged in Brisbane. I was healing that before this tournament. I got it to pretty good shape. We still had to monitor it.

"Then today, I guess I hurt another aspect of it similar to the last two, but not by any means that serious.

"I've had surgery on that hip. I'm hoping that's not any reason why I struggled."

Raonic – who wasted six set points in the second set against Nadal – also revealed he has been struggling with flu during the grand slam, something he says has had a draining effect on him.

He added: "I'm sure that everybody has something they carry. Obviously this tournament, for me in general, these last now two and a half weeks, have been quite difficult just trying to manage everything.

"First dealing with the physical aspect, getting myself quite ready, I thought, making the most of that, then dealing with the health aspect, then now with this.

"It was quite a draining two and a half weeks."