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‘Seasick and drunk’: Aussie cricket coach Langer reveals health scare
SYDNEY, Dec 11, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Australian cricket coach Justin Langer has
revealed a health scare last year left him feeling “seasick and drunk” and
almost forced him to quit.
The 50-year-old, who is preparing for a four-Test series against India
starting in Adelaide next week, said tinnitus, vertigo and vestibular
migraines struck out of the blue during the World Cup in England.
He initially thought it was a tumour in his ear, like his father developed
25 years earlier, but brain scans in England and later back home ruled that
out.
“I developed tinnitus and that is just a constant now. I also kept getting
vertigo, which is just horrible,” he told the West Australian newspaper late
Thursday.
“For about 10 months, it literally felt like I was seasick and drunk the
whole time.
“In my job, I’ve got to put the mask on all the time obviously but it takes
its toll.”
Perth-born Langer, who has been Australian coach since 2018 when Darren
Lehmann stepped down in the wake of a ball-tampering scandal, said it got so
bad he considered his future in the game.
“I got to a point where I was feeling so unwell and not having the answers,
I wasn’t sure that I would keep going in my job because it was just so
stressful,” he said.
Physiotherapy has helped the 105-Test veteran deal with vertigo and he has
also been having treatment for the migraines, which leave him dizzy, but the
tinnitus has not abated.
“It was really weird. It literally just came on,” he said,
“We’re in England for the World Cup and one day I wake up and I describe as
like in Star Wars, the light sabres when they start hitting each other.”
Langer said is not sure why the symptoms developed, but said he “got hit a
lot” during his career as an opening batsman.
His problems led to him become the Perth-based Ear Science Institute’s new
ambassador next year.
BSS/AFP/GMR/0916 hrs