Ian Healy accuses Usman Khawaja of faking hamstring injury, calls him poor teammate
Ian Healy accused Usman Khawaja of being a poor teammate and of faking a hamstring injury that kept him out of a Sheffield Shield match last year during an appearance on SEN radio on Thursday, after Khawaja wrote about their strained relationship in his autobiography, Sabr.
Healy, who has been described in reports as a former Australia wicketkeeper and is deputy chair of Queensland Cricket, said his objections were rooted in what he regarded as a lack of honesty and commitment to Queensland. The dispute dates to last year when Khawaja did not play a Shield match and instead went to the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, a decision Healy raised publicly after reading Khawaja’s account. Khawaja maintained at the time that he was unavailable because of a hamstring injury; Healy challenged that explanation on radio.
Speaking on SEN, Healy singled out the Grand Prix absence as especially damaging. "The one that might have broken the camel's back was this Grand Prix one," said Healy, a former Australia ODI captain. "I didn't know at the time he was going to the Grand Prix, and neither did his (Queensland) team. He didn't even tell the team why he wasn't playing, right."
Healy said Queensland’s medical staff had examined Khawaja and found no evidence of a hamstring problem before advising he was fit to play. He described his enquiries into the matter and quoted team medicos: "Then he claimed an injury, so I then sussed out with all sorts of medicos in our dressing room and our head of high performance, and they denied the injury. "They tested him structurally and functionality-wise, and they said 'there's no hammy (injury), you're right to play.' He didn't say that in his book. "And then they (medicos) said, 'but let's get it scanned this afternoon,' and he refused to scan. So, that's what I was going on."
Healy expressed frustration at what he saw as a failure to support teammates. "It's a shame that he doesn't support his team better than that, and then we found out he's going to the Grand Prix," Healy said.
The exchange follows earlier criticism from Healy after Khawaja skipped another Queensland fixture at the Adelaide Oval, an absence Healy noted came just a fortnight before Australia were scheduled to play a Test at the same venue; Khawaja’s decision to recount these disputes in Sabr has returned the matter to public attention and Healy has reiterated his stance.
Khawaja’s record for Queensland is detailed in reports: he represented the Bulls in 64 first-class matches, scoring 4,317 runs at an average of 45.44, and played 55 one-day matches, accumulating 2,634 runs at an average of 50.65. He captained Queensland from 2015 to 2024 and was part of the side that won the Sheffield Shield in the 2020-21 season.
