Australia all-rounder Cameron Green reveals he's fighting chronic kidney disease

SYDNEY: Australia all-rounder Cameron Green disclosed that he has been fighting stage two chronic kidney disease which was diagnosed when he was just a newborn and had a 12-year life expectancy at one point.

The 24-year-old's parents were informed by medical professionals that their son might not survive past the age of 12 due to the ailment, which was identified at birth.

Despite this, he has managed to cope with the condition throughout his professional cricket career.

The 24-year-old all-rounder was left out of Australia's playing XI for the Test against Pakistan in Perth as Mitchell Marsh usurped him as the incumbent all-rounder.

Green has been dealing with the disease for his entire life, having hardly made it known to even team-mates or friends. Almost no one, not even teammates or friends, know that Green has had the illness his whole life.

"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 per cent at the moment which is stage two," Green told Channel 7 Australia as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

"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. 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 all-rounder added.

As reported by ESPNcricinfo, when Green's mother Bee Tracey had a 19-week pregnancy scan, the condition was discovered. There were early concerns that Green might not live past the age of twelve, according to his father Gary.

"At the time it was unchartered territory as such, the prognosis wasn't great. There were life expectancy issues that he might not expect to live past twelve years of age," Gary Green said.

Green has handled the problem admirably thus far in his career and has only experienced one alarming incident when representing Australia in an ODI against New Zealand in Cairns last year. He bowled five overs and fielded the entire fifty, making 89 not out in a successful chase of runs, but while batting he suffered from excruciating cramps.

"I think it was pretty well documented that I had a pretty long day of bowling and a pretty long bat as well, and then had a cramping episode. It took me a long time to realise that it was probably my kidney function that was affecting my cramping," Green said.

"I always thought I didn't drink enough, didn't eat enough, didn't look after myself during the game as well as I could have, but I think over time I realised that I was doing absolutely everything right, but I was still cramping, unfortunately," he added.

Green claimed that it took him some time to tell his teammates, who had been unsure of his ability to manage the burden overall.

"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," Green said.