Jack Leach Opens Up About His Troublesome Period With 'Sepsis'

Jack Leach, England’s bespectacled spinner, went through a troublesome period last year after he contracted sepsis. So much so, that he tried to keep himself awake, fearing he would die if he falls asleep.

Leach contracted with sepsis before the second Test against New Zealand in Hamilton, last year. It led him to miss the forthcoming matches and the series against South Africa which followed.

Remember thinking ‘don’t fall asleep, you might not get up’: Jack Leach

“I didn’t know too much about it at the time, how serious it could be, but I remember feeling very, very ill,” Leach was quoted as saying by Daily Mail. “I remember thinking ‘don’t fall asleep because you might not wake up.’ It was that serious in terms of how I was feeling.”

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Leach recalled his blood pressure was dropping quickly during the phase and his heart-rate was way higher than normal. But antibiotics made him feel better and recover. He also revealed it took longer for him to recover than he thought.

“I was out of it really. My blood pressure was dropping quickly, my heart-rate was 190 and my temperature was 40 degrees. That’s when they called an ambulance and got me to hospital.

“Once I got there, got the antibiotics in my arm and on to a drip, I started to feel better quite quickly but it still took a couple of nights in hospital and I was probably still recovering when I flew back from New Zealand. It took longer to get over than I thought,” he added.

What is sepsis?

Sepsis is a serious condition resulting from the presence of harmful microorganisms in the blood or other tissues and the body’s response to their presence, potentially leading to the malfunctioning of various organs, shock, and death.

It is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body’s response to infection causes injury to its tissues and organs.