Australia all-rounder Cameron Green reveals being diagnosed of Chronic Kidney Disease with birth

Australian all-rounder Cameron Green made his international debut in 2020.

Australia all-rounder Cameron Green made a startling revelation that he was born with a chronic kidney disease which he has been managing while playing cricket at the top-level. Green revealed this in an interview with Channel 7.

24-year-old Cameron Green was left out of Australia’s XI for the first test of the summer against Pakistan in Perth, with Mitchell Marsh being part of the XI.

Green also revealed that he has been dealing with the disease for his entire life, having hardly made it known to even team-mates or friends. He at one stage had a life expectancy of just 12 but that has been managed throughout his professional cricketing career.

“My parents got told when I was born that I had chronic kidney disease there are no symptoms. It just got picked up from the ultrasound. Kidneys can’t get better. It’s irreversible. So anyway you can find to slow the progression, you basically try and do,” said Green.

“At the time it was uncharted territory; the prognosis wasn’t great. There were life-expectancy issues that he might not expect to live past 12 years of age,” said Green’s father.

Cameron Green has played 24 tests, 23 ODIs, and 8 T20Is for Australia since making his debut in 2020. He was recently a part of Australian squad which won the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 in India.  

‘I consider myself very lucky,’ says Cameron Green

Green stated that he had dealt with this issue relatively well throughout his career, with only one worrying incident occurring while playing for Australia in an ODI against New Zealand in Cairns last year. He scored 89 runs not out in a successful run chase after bowling five overs and fielded the entire 50 overs, however, he suffered from acute cramping while batting.

“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 are 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,” Green added.

Green said it took him a while to reveal it to his team-mates, who had wondered about his capacity to handle the all-round workload.

“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,” the all-rounder added.

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