Don Bradman's Bad Luck

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 121, 24 May 1941, Page 4 (Supplement)

Don Bradman's Bad Luck

DON BRADMAN'S many friends will regret the disability that has rendered him unable to continue his military duties, and has led to a recommendation for his discharge from the army. Doubtless he himself will regret it most of all, quite apart from the suffering the disability is causing him, for he had entered upon his miiitary duties with all the enthusiasm that he had put into his cricket, and was keen to make a success of his job, writes E. H. M. Baillie in the "Sporting Globe." Early in the war Tie enlisted in the R.A.A.F., but waited several months without a call coming for him to take up duty. Then it was arranged that he should transfer to the physical training section of the army, and he took up duty at the Frankston school with the rank of lieutenant. It was while he was there that the trouble began. He had trouble with one of his legs, and severe soreness developed in his shoulder. This was eventually diagnosed as fibrositis of the muscles of the back. His health generally was not good, and, returning to Adelaide he spent two or three weeks in hospital undergoing special treatment, but that has not remedied the complaint. The outcome is the recommendation for his discharge from the army. When Bradman entered upon his military duties he decided that cricket must go, and he played only occasionally last season. Then he found that the trouble handicapped him in his batting. In a match on the Richmond ground in aid of the Fags for Fighters Fund, he made a century and he told me afterwards jthat every time he hit the ball it caused him severe pain in the shoulder. He did not look at all well when he took part in some cricket in Melbourne about Christmas time, and in a recent letter he said that he

had not been anything like himself for some months, and was still far from well.

The case of Bradman recalls that of Sam Staples, a member of A. P. F. Chapman's team that visited Australia in 1928-29. On the voyage out from England Staples developed muscular trouble that affected the lower part of his body and his legs. When he tried to practise on arrival in Perth he found he could not stand up to it, and by the time the team reached Melbourne he had to stay in bed at his hotel. He was left here when the team went to Sydney, but he joined them as they were about to leave for Brisbane. He was so bad, however, that he was at once sent straight back to England to be specially treated for fibrositis, and it was some time before he was able to play again.