What Lloyd Austin’s secret surgery tells us about men of a certain age

There is a state commonly exhibited by blokes over the age of 50, writes Jim White, we can now – thanks to the US defence secretary – call ‘The Austin Way’: where we’re in constant denial about what ails us

Aged 70, which makes him a mere stripling in US political circles, Austin had been admitted into hospital before Christmas (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press All rights reserved)

Here is a new test for all men of a certain age, a gauge to assess your approach to matters of health: just exactly how Lloyd Austin are you?

This week there was a collective raising of eyebrows in US political circles following the revelation that Austin, the US defence secretary, had undergone major surgery without actually telling anyone at the White House.

Aged 70, which makes him a mere stripling in US political circles, Austin had been admitted into hospital before Christmas for an operation to remove a cancerous tumour from his prostate. After complications, he was back in the intensive care ward early in the New Year. And it was only this week, as he lay in his hospital bed attached by tubing to various bleeping gadgets, that he thought he ought to let his colleagues know of the cause of his absence from duty. This was not a hangover, Mr President. This was serious.