Elon Musk contracted malaria while on safari in South Africa in 2000 and almost died, a new biography has claimed. Walter Isaacson detailed the billionaire’s near-death experience in a new biography published this week. Mr Musk contracted malaria during a holiday in South Africa after being ousted as CEO of PayPal by Peter Thiel in October 2000. It was Mr Musk’s first time back in his native South Africa since leaving for Canada aged 17, Mr Isaacson wrote. During his trip, Mr Musk and his then-wife Justine Musk went to a game reserve. When he returned to California in January 2001, Mr Musk reportedly began to feel dizzy and experienced recurring waves of chills and started throwing up in an emergency room, leading to him being wrongly diagnosed with viral meningitis. The billionaire’s condition worsened until his “pulse was barely perceptible,” according to the book. Mr Musk was only diagnosed with malaria after a doctor with expertise in infectious diseases passed by his bed at Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City and realized he had a potentially fatal form of the disease that can affect the central nervous system or cause “acute respiratory distress,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mr Isaacson described how it took Mr Musk five months to fully recover after he was put in intensive care for 10 days and treated with doxycycline and chloroquine. An email written by the head of human resources at X.com — later Paypal — to Mr Musk’s former business partners Peter Thiel and Max Levchin described how he was “actually only hours from death,” the biography revealed. The Tesla CEO’s mother Maye Musk described the ordeal as “terrifying”. “I remember your malaria infection very clearly. You were unconscious, yellow and shivering for days. Tubes were going in and out of you. It was a terrifying time. Modern medicine saved you,” she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. While he was in hospital, Mr Musk’s then-colleagues found he’d taken out a life insurance policy worth $100 million on behalf of X.com. “If he had died, all of our financial problems were going to be solved,” Mr Thiel reportedly told Isaacson. Mr Musk told Isaacson: “Vacations will kill you. Also, South Africa – that place is still trying to destroy me.” The tech mogul co-founded online bank X.com in 1999. The company merged with another payment system, Confinity, which was co-founded by Thiel and Levchin, and was renamed PayPal. Isaacson was given access to the Tesla and SpaceX CEO over the past two years, which culminated in Mr Musk’s biography being published this week. The writer spoke with several figures close to Mr Musk while writing the biography, including his ex-girlfriend Grimes and his former wives Tallulah Riley and Justine Musk, as well as his estranged father. So far, the book has also claimed Musk and Grimes secretly welcomed a third child, in addition to X and their 22-month-old daughter Exa Dark Sideræl. However, it was not immediately clear when their second son, named Techno Mechanicus or “Tau”, was born. In the biography, Isaacson also writes that the tech mogul’s brother Kimbal Musk and his friends “hated” ex-girlfriend and actor Amber Heard so intensely, it “made their distaste for Justine [Musk’s first wife] pale”. One review by The New York Times said Isaacson’s biography stitches together a portrait of a Mr Musk as a “mercurial ‘man-child’”. Read More Grimes says Elon Musk was ‘clueless’ about why she was upset by C-section photo Elon Musk ‘hardly remembers’ his own ‘demon-like’ episodes, biographer claims Book Review: 'Elon Musk' offers a revealing but not surprising portrait of tech mogul Elon Musk makes prediction for imminent Starship launch Twitter rival Bluesky hits new milestone Putin praises Musk days after report Tesla boss stopped Ukrainian attack

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It was the England squad that was out of date even before it was announced. Eberechi Eze was out before he knew he was in. His Euro 2020 had ended before he knew he might play a part in it. As he prepares for a belated England debut, two years after Gareth Southgate had first called him up, it nevertheless marks swift progress for a footballer released by Arsenal at 13, Fulham at 15 and Millwall at 18. Eze has a calmness that has enabled him to deal with setbacks, a quiet assurance that has stemmed from his faith. He has a belief in destiny, that things are meant to be. It helped him to deal with events of May 2021. “In training we were playing small-sided games, five v five, and I received the ball and went to push off and start running with it and I just felt a pop,” recalled the Crystal Palace midfielder. “It felt like someone had kicked me or someone behind me had stepped on my ankle but I looked around and no one was there. So I knew it was serious.” His immediate instincts were sadly correct. He required surgery. As he was digesting and disseminating the news, he discovered he was in England’s 33-man provisional squad for the tournament. Their number had to be reduced to 26. The luckless Eze was the first to go. “I had gone inside, had a little assessment from the doctor and he told me that I had done my Achilles,” Eze said. “I asked for my phone to tell my wife and my family and I saw I had the message I was in the provisional squad for England. For it to happen on that day…” Eze coped with greater equanimity than many others would have done. “I found myself at peace because I understood I wasn’t meant to be,” he said. He found England’s eventual run to the final “inspirational”. There was no bitterness, no sense it might have been him. “I look at things deep so I saw it, ‘listen this is just another hurdle on the way, you know what you can do and where you can get to, so the focus is to keep going and keep pushing,’” he explained. A theme of his career is that he does get there in the end, even if he is tripped up by the hurdles. “Against the odds, I am in this position,” he said. “Getting released from Millwall was quite tough, because that was the time when everyone is getting their pro contract and you don’t know where you are going.” He had passed through a series of clubs. Even when picked up by QPR, he made a solitary appearance before being loaned to League Two Wycombe. “Without that experience who knows if I would be here?” he wondered. Now he has found the approval of two England managers: both Southgate and Roy Hodgson, who signed him for Palace in 2020 and whose unexpected return to the dugout in April brought a burst of six goals in nine games for Eze, leading to international recognition. “He has insane wisdom,” said Eze. Hodgson and his long-time assistant Ray Lewington have helped Eze on and off the field, with his confidence, with his mental state, with their guidance. “I owe so much to them,” he added. “It has opened my eyes to more.” His chances of an England bow may be increased if the Manchester City duo of Jack Grealish and Phil Foden sit the game out after their Champions League final exertions. He hopes his parents will be able to join him in Malta. Eze is of Nigerian descent and qualified to play for two countries but when England called, it felt the right decision to accept their approach. He is a different type of talent, a player comfortable operating in small spaces, with the skill to prevail in close quarters. It is a result of his upbringing; fellow south Londoners like Wilfried Zaha and Jadon Sancho learnt the game in a similar way. “I think there’s load of players that have grown up playing in cages so they understand, they know what it is about,” he said. “It is fun, it is enjoyable, and it is where you get your first learning as a footballer in south London. It has helped massively and I can see that now in how I play, how I think and how I assess situations. It’s definitely a strength I have.” The journey from the cages of south London to Premier League pitches was indirect, his route to international football then obstructed by an ill-timed injury. It has not come easy for Eze. But the man who was released and rejected, injured and ill-fated could be an England international on Friday. Read More Eberechi Eze feels injury nightmare gave him platform for England recognition Manchester City quintet set to arrive for England duty on Tuesday evening Jude Bellingham uses pain of England’s near misses in bid for Euro 2024 glory Eberechi Eze feels injury nightmare gave him platform for England recognition Sportswashing is about to change football beyond anything you can imagine Football rumours: Man United, Real Madrid and Chelsea fight for Kylian Mbappe

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