Usman Khawaja reveals he hid his arthritis for his whole Test career

Usman Khawaja kept his rheumatoid arthritis secret for his entire Test career, and he now says why. The Australian batter, who played 88 Tests, did not want anyone to use his illness against him while he was trying to break down stereotypes about players like him in Australian cricket.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune condition, which means the body's immune system attacks its own joints. Khawaja was diagnosed at 22. Pain in his left knee had become so severe that he could not walk 10 metres to the bathroom. The Guardian reports that he has needed regular injections to keep playing, and that he still receives them.

He says the people who knew kept the secret too. Khawaja said staff at Cricket NSW and Cricket Australia, along with medical staff, did not share it. He has also said he wants others with autoimmune disease to take heart from his story. He made the decision to go public so that people living with similar conditions can see a professional cricketer keep going, according to ABC News.

The details are in his autobiography, Sabr, which is due out on 10 November. Khawaja wrote it himself and did not use a ghost writer, the professional writers who often shape sports memoirs behind the scenes. Pre-orders have been open since August. The book also covers the 2018 ball-tampering episode in South Africa, often called Sandpapergate, when Australian players were caught trying to alter the ball's surface with sandpaper. Khawaja met Australia captain Pat Cummins before publication to tell him what the book says about that episode.

On the field, Khawaja finished with 6,229 Test runs and 16 centuries. His final Test came against England at the Sydney Cricket Ground earlier this year. Those figures are the scorecard record of a career that ran for more than a decade. The new detail is the story behind them: a player who was in constant pain while opening and batting at the top of the order for Australia.

For fans, the reveal changes how some of those innings look. A batter who needed injections to walk onto the field and still scored 16 Test hundreds has a different story to tell than the one the scorecards alone suggest. Khawaja's account will give cricket fans, and anyone who has lived with a long-term illness, a fuller picture of what those years took.