Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi left the Lanka Premier League (LPL) 2020 midway due to a ‘personal emergency’ on Tuesday, bringing his stint with Galle Gladiators to a halt although he plans to return after dealing with the situation. Though no official word has come from either the player or the franchise over what sort of a personal emergency Afridi has had to deal with, certain rumours of his daughter being hospitalised have surfaced.
On Wednesday, a picture on social media surfaced showing one of Afridi’s daughters being in the hospital. While fans continued to seek the authenticity of the report, some accounts on Twitter have claimed that the daughter of the cricketer is seriously ill. The authenticity of the news, however, hasn’t been verified yet.
“Do you know the reason for @SAfridiOfficial ‘s return to the country? His daughter has been admitted to hospital. We pray for speedy recovery  #LPL2020”, a tweet claiming to be the official Twitter account of the Lanka Premier League wrote. The account by the handle (@LPLt20official), however, isn’t the real official account of the league. The real account is (@LPLT20).
A Pakistan-based news portal, 24NewsHD, has also claimed that his 9-month-old daughter is sick. It’s the same daughter whose health issues had prevented Afridi from joining the franchise for the T20 league early.
“The same daughter is not well again and he will be leaving the hotel in Hambantota at around 7.00 pm for Colombo, where he will catch a flight for Karachi at 1.00 am”, one of the team sources told the news portal over the telephone.
While the team management is hopeful of the Gladiators captain re-joining the team, the quarantine rules in Lanka do make the situation difficult. The final of the tournament is to be played on December 17 but the presence of 7-day isolation for overseas travellers may see Afridi miss the rest of the campaign.
The veteran all-rounder, however, could get an exemption once he makes himself available considering he has already contracted COVID-19 and is believed to have developed immunity against the virus.
