Yuvraj Singh has opened up on one of the most difficult phases of his life, sharing how his battle with cancer began even as he continued playing for India.
At the height of his career, Yuvraj had just played a key role in India’s 2011 World Cup win. However, throughout the tournament, he was dealing with severe fatigue, nausea and constant discomfort. At the time, the illness went undetected, and he pushed through, driven by the demands of international cricket.
Soon after the tournament, his condition worsened and tests revealed a rare form of cancer, with a tumour in his chest. What should have been a stable phase in his career turned into a fight for survival.
“Not coming to terms with it was something I was going through because, as a sportsman, you can’t be sick. You’re supposed to play for India. But eventually, I kept getting sicker and sicker while still playing cricket,” Yuvraj said in a conversation with Michael Vaughan on The Overlap podcast on YouTube.
He explained how athletes are conditioned to ignore such signs. “As a sportsman, you don’t think about being sick. You’re supposed to play for India.”
The reality hit hard when doctors explained the seriousness of his condition.
“He said to me, ‘Mate, I’ve looked at your scans. The tumour is sitting between your heart and lung, right on the pipe. Either you go and play cricket, or you might have a heart attack. I think you’ve got three to six months left if you don’t do chemotherapy.’”
That moment forced him to take a step back and reassess.
“That’s when I realised I really needed to think about what I had to do. It wasn’t easy because I run a cancer foundation that focuses on early detection, and here I was, not coming to terms with what I was going through,” he said.
Yuvraj travelled abroad for treatment and underwent chemotherapy in the United States during 2011–12. It was a physically and mentally exhausting period, but it also gave him a new perspective.
“It took me almost a year to come to terms with the fact that I might not be able to play cricket again. But once the treatment was over, I was determined to come back, even though no one believed I could.”
