Former NBA star Michael Jordan has sparked health concerns among fans after he was spotted at a Champions League game on Thursday (September 19).
During the match, which saw AS Monaco beat Barcelona by two goals to one, the 61-year-old basketball legend was pictured with glassy, orange-colored scleras – the part of the eye meant to be white.
On X, Bleacher Report Football posted a photo of Jordan in the stands, amassing over 17.6 million views and hundreds of comments. “Michael Jordan is in the house for Monaco vs. Barcelona,” the caption read.
In the photo, which has now been reposted over 3,600 times, the six-time NBA champion is smiling in a black Air Jordan Jumpman hat and a matching shirt. His eyes appear to be bloodshot in an orange-yellow pigment.
Immediately, fans flocked to the comments section, questioning whether they should be worried about Jordan’s health. Some X users thought his eyes were a sign of liver failure.
“That boy’s liver is cooked,” one blunt individual wrote, while another questioned: “Does he have Jaundice?”
Another concerned fan wrote: “Why the h** MJ out here with JAUNDICE tho? Eyes lookin’ like a Vampire In Brooklyn.”
“Yellow eyes.. man might have some problems,” a fourth added.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, jaundice is a condition that causes the whites of the eyes and the skin to turn yellow.
“It’s caused by a buildup of bilirubin, a yellow chemical in hemoglobin that’s produced when the body breaks down red blood cells,” the Cleveland Clinic report states.
Jaundice occurs when the liver can’t efficiently process red blood cells or if the liver is “overloaded or damaged,” per a Mount Sinai report.
Though jaundice can occur at any age, the condition poses serious health risks in older individuals. Jaundice can be a sign of problems with the liver, pancreas, or gall bladder, which could signal liver disease or a severe infection.
“Yellow eyes should not be ignored because they are a sign of something more going on. There is literally more than meets the eye,” Dr Val Phua, an ophthalmologist at Eagle Eye Centre Singapore, told VICE in 2020 after the release of Jordan’s The Last Dance documentary on Netflix.
“Leaving eye conditions untreated includes compromise in vision and even blindness.
“His eyes are slightly discoloured which may point to jaundice, but there seems to also be a slightly raised lesion on the eye, which can point to something local causing the discolouration like a pinguecula,” said Dr Phua.
According to the American Optometric Association, pinguecula is an abnormal growth of tissue on the conjunctiva, the clear membrane that covers the white of the eye.
Jordan has not spoken publicly about the color of his eyes nor any recent health issues.
The Independent has contacted Jordan’s representative for comment.
