Usman Khawaja, a former Australian batter, was diagnosed at the age of 22 with an illness that may have ended his cricket career before it ever began. While playing for New South Wales, the young cricketer was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, a potentially devastating inflammatory ailment. After quitting from the sport following Australia’s Ashes victory in January, he made the uncommon choice to keep this a secret for the rest of his international career, just recently admitting the truth.

Usman Khawaja added two ODI hundreds to his record while playing 88 Test matches for Australia, totaling 6,229 runs and 16 hundreds. He was the first Muslim and Pakistani-born Test cricketer to represent Australia. He fought his way back into the Australian Test team after being dropped eight times, most notably when he achieved double hundreds in Sydney in 2022 at the age of 35.

Why did Usman Khawaja conceal his diagnosis?

Usman Khawaja feared the worst in the early months after his 2009 off-season diagnosis as doctors battled to figure out what was causing his crippling left knee pain. His amount of caution in handling the situation was astonishing. He told the cricket administration, medical staff, and coaching staff about his condition, but he hid it from the rest of the group. His justification was clear: he did not want to be treated preferentially or have his condition used against him by detractors or opponents.

To control the disease, the patient required ongoing medical care. About six months after his diagnosis, Usman Khawaja credits his ability to resume professional cricket to frequent injections of a medicine he refers to as a “godsend.” The drug dramatically enhanced his career prospects and overall quality of life. Usman Khawaja added, “I would never have played cricket or even lived a normal life again without that drug.”

His intimate pals were unaware of his hardship. Both Test teammate Michael Hussey and boyhood cricket pal David Warner, who are both well-known in Australian cricket, were uninformed of Khawaja’s health issues during their time together. In his soon-to-be-published autobiography, Sabr, Usman Khawaja chronicles his battle with autoimmune disease and hopes to give hope to those who suffer from it.

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If a professional cricketer with rheumatoid arthrtis can compete at the top level, I am confident that many others can as well, Usman Khawaja remarked.

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