New Delhi: Former Afghanistan fast bowler Shapoor Zadran is suffering from Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), a rare and life-threatening disease. In this disease, the immune system starts to fail. The 38-year-old is currently admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of a New Delhi hospital, where he travelled to in January 2026.
HLH, which predominantly occurs in children, is a condition in which the patient’s immune system becomes severely impaired. He suffers from hyperinflammation triggered by an overactive immune response, which damages the body’s tissues, including the bone marrow, liver, spleen and lymph nodes.
Shapoor has played 80 international matches (44 ODIs and 36 T20Is) for Afghanistan between 2009 and 2020. He first felt unwell last October, and the doctors in Afghanistan asked him to go to India for further treatment.
According to ESPNcricinfo, he got his Indian visa fast-tracked after spinner Rashid Khan and the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) chairman Mirwais Ashraf asked for help from their contacts in India. Ashraf reached out to ICC chairman Jay Shah, and Rashid contacted the IPL franchise circuit.
Shapoor travelled to India on January 18 and was admitted to the hospital. The former pacer was accompanied by his wife and ex- Afghanistan teammate Asghar Afghan. He was also joined by his younger brother Ghamai Zadran, who lives in Canada, on January 26.
View this post on Instagram
‘It was a very serious infection’: Ghamai
Ghamai told ESPNcricinfo that it was a very serious infection, and his whole body was full of infection, including tuberculosis. He further added that the infection also spread to his brain, which was revealed in the MRI and CT scan.
He further said that Shapoor had started to respond to the treatment and was discharged from the hospital after a few weeks. But then he complained of stomach upset, and Ghamai brought Shapoor again to the hospital, after which things got worse.
“He started getting a fever, and then he tested positive for dengue. His immunity was very weak as the red blood cell count depleted severely,” Ghamai told ESPNcricinfo. Shapoor underwent a bone-marrow test around March 26, which revealed that he was in Stage Four of HLH.