Novak Djokovic Claims He Was 'Poisoned' by Food During 2022 Australian Open Detention: I Had a 'High Level of Lead'

Novak Djokovic is speaking out about how he believes he got food poisoning during his 2022 detention in Melbourne, Australia.

In a new February 2025 cover interview with GQ published Thursday, Jan. 9, the professional tennis player opened up about getting detained during the Australian Open due to not being vaccinated against COVID-19.

Since he had recently had COVID at the time, Djokovic was taken to a detention hotel. He was then deported from Australia a day before the tournament after a 10-day legal battle saw him attempt to get an exemption for Australia's vaccination requirement denied.

However, in his recent interview, the 37-year-old athlete claimed that he began to have "some health issues" when he arrived back home to Serbia.

“And I realized that in that hotel in Melbourne, I was fed with some food that poisoned me,” Djokovic claimed.

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He added, “I had some discoveries when I came back to Serbia. I never told this to anybody publicly, but discoveries that I was, I had a really high level of heavy metal. Heavy metal.”

“I had the lead, very high level of lead and mercury,” Djokovic continued. “Yeah, very sick. It was like the flu, just a simple flu. But when it was days after that a simple flu took me down so much.”

The 24-time Grand Slam champion added that he was treated by an emergency medical team “several times and then I had to do toxicology [tests].”

According to the Food and Drug Administration, foods that are raised, grown or processed can have lead inside them.

A spokesperson from Australia’s Department of Home Affairs told GQ in a statement when reached for comment about Djokovic's claims, “For privacy reasons, the Department cannot comment on individual cases.”

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After Djokovic's deportation from Australia in 2022, he was granted a visa to compete in the 2023 Australian Open.

Speaking about how he holds no grudges against Australia, the star told GQ, "In contrary, actually, a lot of Australian people that I meet, I met in Australia the last few years or elsewhere in the world, coming up to me and apologizing to me for the treatment I received because they were embarrassed by their own government at that point."

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports that Djokovic declined to comment when asked about the claim ahead of this year’s Australian Open, which begins on Sunday, Jan. 12.

“I would appreciate not talking more in detail about that, as I would like to focus on the tennis and why I’m here,” he said. “If you want to see what I’ve said and get more info on that, you can always revert to the article.”

Read the original article on People