Former Australian skipper Meg Lanning has opened up about the private setbacks that led her to announce shock retirement from international cricket. One of the outstanding players Australia has ever produced, Meg Lanning became extremely obsessed with exercise to deal with the setbacks, leading up to her international retirement in November last year. Lanning was taking insufficient food despite exercising too hard. 

Superstar Lanning decided to take some time off cricket and later returned to lead Australia in the T20I World Cup in February 2023. Meanwhile, she withdrew from the last year’s ashes citing medical reasons. As a player, Lanning has had a huge success, winning the T20I World Cup five times and the ODI World Cup two times.

"I was over-exercising and under-fuelling. I got to the point where I was doing about 85-90km a week. And, I was in denial,” Lanning said on The Howie Games Podcast.

"It became a bit of an obsession. It was because I could escape mentally. I would throw the headphones in, I wouldn't take my phone with me. I would have my Apple watch with me and listen to music. Nobody could contact me. I really liked that because I felt like I was in control."

"I felt like I was eating. I was still eating. But I'm much more aware of it now. I was not eating enough. I'd eat maybe a couple of meals a day if I was lucky and they weren't significant. Initially, It didn't start off as a deliberate thing. It just became a bit of a new normal."

"It sort of slowly crept into conscious decisions. Essentially I felt good. I was light. I could run heaps. I wasn't getting injured like everyone was telling me I was going to do. It almost became a bit of, 'I am going to show you' sort of thing."

"It sort of just spiralled and I was in denial. I got down to 57kg from 64kg. It wasn't ridiculous but it was significant. The ratios were out of whack. But it was the other things that I did not realise. It [affected] my ability to concentrate. I didn't really want to see other people. I disengaged a lot from friends and family. I didn't realise that I was doing this. It sort of became a new normal."

"I naturally would enjoy spending time by myself. I'm totally fine with that. But there would be very few people who I would want to engage with. I would get really snappy, real moody if anyone asked anything. I became a bit of a different person. Pretty hard to be around, I would say."