Don Bradman, Australia's captain and the world's most famous cricketer, was invalided out of military service on 30 June 1941 with chronic fibrositis. He had enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force in June 1940, transferred to the Army School of Physical Training at Frankston, and within months was so debilitated by muscular pain in his back and right arm that he could not shave himself or comb his hair. The discharge — barely reported at the time under wartime censorship — kept him out of cricket for almost five years and shaped the legend of his post-war return.
By April 1941 PT staff at Frankston had noticed him visibly grimacing during demonstrations. Eyesight tests at the same period also revealed acuity below the RAAF aircrew threshold, complicating any return to flying duties.
Bradman volunteered for the RAAF on 28 June 1940 and was passed fit for aircrew. The service had more recruits than aircraft and instructors, however, and after four idle months in Adelaide the Governor-General, Lord Gowrie, persuaded him to transfer to the Army where his physical-training experience would be more useful. Commissioned as a lieutenant, Bradman was posted to the Army School of Physical Training at Frankston on Port Phillip Bay, charged with instructing PT instructors who would in turn train infantry divisions.
The role required hours of demonstration, weight work and parade-ground drill. Within weeks Bradman's right shoulder and back began to seize. Specialists at Heidelberg Military Hospital diagnosed fibrositis — a then-fashionable label for what would now be classified within the fibromyalgia family — and prescribed rest. He was invalided out of the Army on 30 June 1941. Press coverage was minimal: wartime regulations discouraged stories about Australia's most famous reservist being unable to soldier on, and Bradman himself disliked the sympathy.
For much of late 1941 he was bedridden. His wife Jessie later told Roland Perry that for weeks he could not lift his arms above shoulder height; one masseur, Ern Saunders, became a near-permanent fixture in the Bradman household at Holden Street, Kensington Park. By 1943 he had returned to stockbroking work in Adelaide but was warned by doctors he might never play first-class cricket again.
The condition flared again in 1945-46 as he juggled administrative duties and his new business after his employer Harry Hodgetts went bankrupt. When he finally led Australia out for the first Test of the 1946-47 Ashes at Brisbane on 29 November 1946, he had not played a Test in eight years and three months, and was widely expected to retire after that single comeback match.
28 June 1940 — enlists in RAAF; sworn in at Adelaide
Late 1940 — transfers to Army; commissioned lieutenant
Early 1941 — posted to Army School of PT, Frankston, Victoria
Spring 1941 — onset of severe fibrositis pain in back and right arm
30 June 1941 — discharged medically unfit
Late 1941-42 — extended bed rest; unable to shave or comb hair
Nov 1946 — returns to Test cricket, Brisbane v England, eight years after last Test
28 Jun 1940
Enlists in RAAF
Late 1940
Transfers to AIF; commissioned lieutenant
Early 1941
Posted to Army PT School, Frankston
30 Jun 1941
Invalided out with fibrositis
Nov 1945
Returns to first-class cricket for SA
29 Nov 1946
First post-war Test, Brisbane
“I was unable even to shave myself or comb my hair.”
“His back was so bad that he had to be helped from the bed to the bathroom.”
Bradman did not play first-class cricket between February 1941 and November 1945. When he reappeared for South Australia v Services XI at the Adelaide Oval in November 1945 he made 68 and 112, but admitted to Bill O'Reilly afterwards: 'My back is no good for a five-day Test match.' That fear, and the bump-ball decision at Brisbane, became founding stories of his Indian-summer career.
A medical discharge that almost rewrote cricket history. Without the fibrositis layoff Bradman might have played for Australia in the Victory Tests of 1945; with it, he came back fragile and at one stage in Brisbane 1946 was 28 not out and judged caught in the slips — the bump-ball decision that may have preserved his post-war legend.
The fibrositis episode remains the most consequential injury in Australian cricket history. Without it, Bradman would not have been free to consolidate his administrative power base; his post-war fragility ensured he retired in 1948 still mythical rather than declining. His later Bradman Foundation papers contain dozens of letters between 1941 and 1945 referring to the condition.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.