Novak Djokovic didn’t want to repeat – or even discuss it at all – in fact, what he said on Friday was an interview from a few months ago GQ magazine, in which he mentions that he had high levels of the metal in his blood from the food he was given in custody before his deportation from Australia in 2022.
“I would appreciate it if you didn’t talk about it in more detail because I would like to focus on tennis and why I’m here,” Djokovic said ahead of the Australian Open, which starts on Sunday (Saturday EST).
“If you want to see what I said and get more information about it, you can always come back to this article,” Djokovic said of the article published online this week.
Djokovic is working with Andy Murray as his coach in Australia as he tries to become the first player in tennis history with 25 Grand Slam singles titles.
In the long one GQ In a story covering several topics, Djokovic spoke about what happened three years ago when he was not vaccinated against Covid-19 and was banned from Australia.
“I had some health problems. And I realized that in this hotel in Melbourne they were feeding me food that was poisoning me,” he said. “When I returned to Serbia, I made several discoveries. I’ve never told anyone this publicly, but… I had a really high level of heavy metal. Heavy metal. I had…very high levels of lead and mercury.”
The 37-year-old Serb did not directly respond at the end of Friday’s news conference when asked if he had any evidence linking the blood levels he reported to GQ with the food he ate while in custody.
