There are 250 level clay events all around before Madrid.
Rafa is again taking a huge gamble by by not playing in one of them.
He won just 3 matches in Monte Carlo.
One was against a 33 year old and another one against a 30 year old. Those were not significant wins. It took him 3 hours to get rid of Ferru.
He won just 1 match in Barcelona.
I can assure you that nothing short of a miracle is needed if he won't step up his practice and if he is not willing to take advantage of some of these smaller events in order to get going again.
He should have gone to Casablanca and put a few matches under his belt.
if he crashes out early at the next 3 events then the conclusion would have to be inescapable: he just does not have the burning desire to win anymore.
I don't know why I keep being in shock over all this when I saw it coming as early as 4 years ago.