Novak Djokovic has claimed that he was ‘poisoned’ by the food that he consumed at a Melbourne hotel during his detention ahead of his deportation from Australia in 2022. The tennis star said his body had ‘high level of lead and mercury’ after eating at the hotel.read more
Experts believe Novak Djokovic’s claim of being served ‘poisoned’ food at a Melbourne hotel during his 2022 detention is ‘very unlikely’; however, they have not ruled out the possibility entirely. Djokovic was detained at a hotel in Melbourne prior to the Australian Open in 2022 before being deported as his visa was canceled over him being ineligible to visit the country while being unvaccinated for COVID-19.
Djokovic stayed at Park Hotel in Melbourne for five days during his detention as his appeal against deportation fell flat in the court. In a recent interview, the 24-time Grand Slam winner revealed that he was given “some food” at the hotel which “poisoned” him with “high level of lead and mercury”.
“I realized that in that hotel in Melbourne I was fed with some food that poisoned me,” Djokovic told GQ magazine in an interview that was released on Thursday.
“I had some discoveries when I came back to Serbia. I never told this to anyone 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.”
Experts question Djokovic’s claim
The 37-year-old Serbian’s claims, however, have been questioned by Australian experts.
“It’s possible … but very unlikely given how long he was locked up, while these meals were probably made in mass amounts and there haven’t been other reports as far as I know,” Damian Maganja, a research fellow in food policy at the George Institute for Global Health, told the Guardian.
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Dr Barbara Cardoso, a nutritional biochemist at Monash University, told the Guardian that while mercury concentration is found in fish and shellfish, it is “unlikely to cause a poisoning”. Besides, it’s also important to note that Djokovic has already claimed that he consumes vegan food.
“Mercury can be present in food, but the food with the highest mercury concentration are fish and shellfish,” Cardoso said. “The concentration in fish and shellfish found in Australia is relatively low. It requires time for that mercury to accumulate in the body to cause poisoning.
“The food that people … who live in Melbourne and consume locally that may have been harvested here or sold at local grocery stores is unlikely to cause a poisoning.”
Djokovic refused to talk about ‘poisoning’ claims
Djokovic was questioned about his claims on Friday in Melbourne ahead of the 2025 Australian Open, but the Serbian did not entertain the request.
“Look, the GQ article came out online yesterday, and I think it’s a February issue, so it’s coming out in print version,” he said.
“I’ve done that interview many months ago, so I would appreciate not talking more in detail about that, as I would like to focus on the tennis and why I’m here. If you want to see what I’ve said and get more info on that, you can always revert to the article.”