Ian Healy Accuses Usman Khawaja of Faking Injury
Ian Healy has lit the fuse again, accusing Usman Khawaja of being a poor teammate and flat-out faking injury, as the release of Khawaja’s book Sabr drags an old domestic dispute back into the spotlight.
This time, it’s got nothing to do with Sandpapergate. It’s about a hamstring, a Grand Prix, and a fractured relationship inside Queensland cricket.
The Grand Prix flashpoint
In his autobiography, Khawaja revisits the storm that erupted last year when he missed a Sheffield Shield match for Queensland but was later seen at the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Melbourne. He wrote that he was unfit to play because of a hamstring injury.
Healy, deputy chair of Queensland Cricket and a former Australia ODI captain, is not buying it.
Speaking on SEN radio on Thursday, Healy said he “called bullshit” on the injury claim and detailed why the episode still rankles.
“The one that might have broken the camel’s back was this Grand Prix one,” Healy said.
He said neither he nor the Queensland team knew Khawaja was going to the Grand Prix, and that the squad had not been told why their captain was unavailable.
“He didn’t even tell the team why he wasn’t playing, right,” Healy said.
The pressure inside the dressing room grew. According to Healy, Queensland’s medical staff put Khawaja through their checks.
“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, you’re right to play.’ He didn’t say that in his book.
“And then they said, ‘but let’s get it scanned this afternoon,’ and he refused to scan. So, that’s what I was going on.
“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.”
For Healy, that was the breaking point in what he describes as a long, uneasy dynamic.
A frosty relationship laid bare
The tension did not start at Albert Park.
Healy and Khawaja were already on edge after the veteran keeper had publicly criticised Khawaja for skipping a Queensland match at Adelaide Oval shortly before a Test at the same venue. That decision, in Healy’s eyes, chipped away at the trust between state and star.
The Grand Prix saga, he says, snapped it.
Khawaja’s version in Sabr seeks to explain his side of the story, particularly around workload, injury management and communication. Healy’s response suggests those explanations have only reopened old wounds inside Queensland circles.
A decorated Queensland career in the crossfire
The debate sits awkwardly alongside Khawaja’s substantial record for his state.
He played 64 first-class matches for Queensland, scoring 4317 runs at 45.44. In one-day cricket, he added 2634 runs from 55 games at an average of 50.65.
He captained the Bulls from 2015 to 2024, steering them to Sheffield Shield success in the 2020–21 season and serving as the calm, experienced centrepiece of the batting order for nearly a decade.
Queensland Cricket publicly thanked him in April for a “remarkable” career when he announced his retirement from state duties.
Now, just months later, one of the state’s great wicketkeepers is publicly questioning his commitment and honesty at the end.
For a player who helped deliver a Shield title and thousands of runs, the question lingers: how will Queensland remember Usman Khawaja — as the champion captain on the scorecard, or the divisive figure now painted in the margins?
