Leach: I lost confidence in my body
England spinner’s virus fear
THE young and the fit are supposed to be better placed to deal with the coronavirus but Jack Leach is taking no chances.
Since returning with his England Test team-mates from the postponed tour of Sri Lanka a week ago, he has been ‘lying low’, conscious not just of his own compromised immune system but of his responsibility to society. He is, he says, ‘just trying to do the right thing’.
At the age of 14, Leach, who is now 28, was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, which causes inflammation of the digestive system. He has been on and off medication ever since.
‘Crohn’s is not so much the issue as the medication I’m taking, which weakens my immune system,’ he says. After the winter he has had, he is in no mood to fall ill again.
When Leach flew to New Zealand for England’s Test series in November, he had attained something close to cult status because of the part he played — an unbeaten one in a last-wicket stand of 76 with Ben Stokes — in the Ashes Headingley ley mir miracle. But things went wrong, rong, badly and dangerously.
After a below-par per- formance in the first Test, which England lost by an innings, Leach contracted sepsis following food poisoning. His heartrate reached 190 beats per minute, his temperature hit 40 degrees. He feared for his life.
‘I was lying in hospital l thinking I shouldn’t fall asleep because I might not wake up,’ he says. ‘ The medics were worried. I could feel I was fighting something severe.’
Not long after in South Africa, he fell victim to the bug that decimated the England dressing room and was sent home early to recuperate. Then came Covid-19 and a fraught journey back from Sri Lanka.
‘ When we arrived, there weren’t many cases in the UK and only one in Sri Lanka, so I felt we were coming to a safer place,’ he says. ‘But then the situation picked up momentum and it wasn’t the right thing to be there.
‘It wasn’t a fear of getting ill but of being far away from home and our families. I was worried about England fans coming over and staying in our hotel in Galle, not knowing if they had the virus and then being quarantined in Sri Lanka. It felt like a race against time to get back before I fell ill. I was keen for that not to happen again.
‘It was naive of me to think I could play cricket so soon after the sepsis and get on the tour of South Africa. My body couldn’t deal with that and each new infection is harder work.
‘But those experiences and the fact I’m young and fit, make me confident that, if I did pick up the coronavirus, I’d be all right. That said, I obviously want to avoid it.’ But did he wonder, during his darker moments, whether his health would get in the way of a Test career that has so far brought him 10 Test caps and 34 wickets for his left-arm spin, a nightwatchman’s 92 against Ireland and that one not out against Australia.
‘I definitely had doubts,’ he says. ‘I lost confidence in my body. It was a wake-up call and made me think I couldn’t get away with certain things. I had to be more diligent.’
His diet now includes more fruit and vegetables and he eats little and often, ‘which helps keep the Crohn’s settled’. He is taking in more protein, too. ‘Your body is a machine, you have to treat it ri right,’ he says. Now Now, though, he and the who whole of cricket is up ag against a nu np recedd en ted challenge .‘ It m makes you realise how much you need cricket and take it for granted,’ he says. ‘Cricket is a routine and it’s weird when it’s taken away fro from you. We’ll all enjoy it a all the more when it come comes back. ‘Every‘ Everyone’ s career has stopped. There’s lots I want to achieve but we’re in the same boat.
‘I was on a podcast the other day and it was one of the best things I’ve done because it was a reminder how much the community loves cricket. It’s not just about playing — the sport means so much to so many people.’
Leach speaks with a concern for others and for the game itself that is born of the perspective granted by his own health struggles. It means that questions about a Test career that was supposed to have been reinvigorated on the turning tracks of Sri Lanka feel less urgent.
‘I don’t really think about my position in the Test team. From a positive point of view, I’ve not played cricket for six months, so I could be adding time to my career. I want to play into my 40s.’
Leach, who lives with his girlfriend Lucy, is not quite self-isolating. On the morning we speak, he has been to the shops. But he is being sensible and following advice on social-distancing.
Virus-related redundancies at Lucy’s wealth-management company have also provided a personal reminder of society’s fragility. ‘You have to stay humble and be empathetic,’ he says. ‘I hope we can all come through this and society and cricket emerge stronger for it. Maybe that’s not a bad thing.’