Australia all-rounder Cameron Green has revealed that he has been suffering from chronic kidney disease since his birth and at one stage, he wasn’t expected to be alive beyond 12 years of age. However, the cricketer has managed to live with the disease and manage it throughout his career so far. Perhaps, hardly any of his team-mates or friends know about Green’s issues with his kidney.
He revealed the same to Channel 7 who posted a video of Green’s struggle with the disease and his journey since childhood managing it. “My parents got told when I was born that I had chronic kidney disease. Basically, there’s no symptoms, it was just picked up through ultrasounds. Chronic kidney disease is basically a progressive disease of your kidney’s health function. Unfortunately, mine doesn’t filter the blood as well as other kidneys. They’re at about 60% at the moment which is stage two.
“I consider myself very lucky that I’m not as affected physically by chronic kidney disease as other people who are affected by the same thing,” Green said. The all-rounder from Australia who has been left out of the playing XI for the first Test in Perth against Pakistan is currently at the second out of five stages of the chronic kidney disease. He further stated that kidneys can’t get better and one can only managed to slower the progression somehow.
“With chronic kidney disease there’s five stages, with stage one being the least severe, and stage five being transplant or dialysis. Fortunately, I’m stage two, but if you don’t look after them enough, it goes back down. Kidneys can’t get better. It’s irreversible. So anything you can do to slow the progression, you basically try and do,” the 24-year-old said. Cameron Green has also revealed that he told his teammates and the support staff of the Australian team when the workload on him started increasing with playing in all formats.
“I have told a few guys in the cricket world. The coaching staff are all over it. I think all the guys in the Aussie cricket team, I’ve told. After a few cramping episodes, I probably had to come off and tell them that it’s probably more than not being professional enough because I knew in the background I was eating and drinking as much as I could to give myself the best chance,” he further added.