Kamal Ghorui
Yuvraj Singh has spoken about the period when he was diagnosed with cancer, saying the illness began when he was at the peak of his career, even as he continued to play for India.At that time, Yuvraj had just played a big role in India’s 2011 World Cup win, he was Player of the Tournament. During the tournament, he was dealing with fatigue, nausea and discomfort. The illness was not detected then, and he continued to play.
After the tournament, his condition got worse and medical tests later found a rare form of cancer, with a tumour in his chest.“Not coming to terms with it was something I was going through because, as a sportsman, you can’t be sick. You’re supposed to play for India. But eventually, I kept getting sicker and sicker while still playing cricket,” Yuvraj said in a conversation with Michael Vaughan on The Overlap podcast on YouTube.He said sport often trains players to ignore such signs. “As a sportsman, you don’t think about being sick. You’re supposed to play for India.”“It was hard to accept. At the peak of your career, you’re on top of a mountain and then you fall into a ditch,” Yuraj said on getting to know that he had cancer. “I was in Delhi. We were going on tour to the West Indies and England. Ganguly had retired and my Test spot had just opened. I was waiting seven years for that spot. I said, ‘I don’t care if I die, I need that spot.’ But I got sicker and sicker.”The seriousness of his condition became clear after doctors explained the risks.“He said to me, ‘Mate, I’ve looked at your scans. The tumour is sitting between your heart and lung, right on the pipe. Either you go and play cricket, or you might have a heart attack. I think you’ve got three to six months left if you don’t do chemotherapy.’”That forced him to step back and take a decision.“That’s when I realised I really needed to think about what I had to do. It wasn’t easy because I run a cancer foundation that focuses on early detection, and here I was, not coming to terms with what I was going through,” he said.Yuvraj then went abroad for treatment and underwent chemotherapy in the United States during 2011–12. He said it took time to accept the situation.“It took me almost a year to come to terms with the fact that I might not be able to play cricket again. But once the treatment was over, I was determined to come back, even though no one believed I could.”During treatment, he continued to follow the game and also received visits from senior players like Anil Kumble and Sachin Tendulkar.“I kept watching old videos. Anil Kumble came to America, shut my laptop, and said, ‘Focus on your health, stop watching cricket videos.’ Sachin came to see me in England. Dr Einhorn gave me confidence; he said, ‘You’ll be a man who walks out of this hospital and never has cancer again.’ I came back and played for India in six months-the T20 World Cup. I wasn’t at my best, but I still got one Man of the Match. Then me and Zaheer Khan went to France for two months of fitness training in a remote area called Brive. We got fitter, came back, and made a comeback again,” Yuvraj revealed.
