 Towards the end of the tour, Hammond fell seriously ill; according to him, a mosquito stung him in the groin area, close to a strain he had suffered, causing blood poisoning. Playing against Jamaica, he moved awkwardly and his team-mates observed him to be in pain. He missed the remaining matches of the tour, and none of the doctors he saw were able to help. On the journey home, during which no doctor was available, his condition worsened, confining him to his cabin with a severe fever for most of the trip. The day after his arrival home, in April 1926, Hammond had the first of 12 operations at the nursing home to which he was taken. His condition worsened to the point where the doctors believed he would die; they considered amputating his leg, a suggestion vetoed by his mother out of concern for his career. Hammond later claimed that his illness remained a mystery to those treating him. A visit from Warner encouraged Hammond to believe recovery was possible, and he began a slow return to health about a month after his return to England. By July, he could watch Gloucestershire playing in Bristol, though he missed the entire 1926 season. No official announcement about Hammond's illness was made, other than to say he was in a nursing home. Although the cause of the illness was never made clear, David Foot has argued that it was syphilis or a related sexually transmitted disease. He has also suggested that its treatment, which in the days before antibiotics probably involved mercury, adversely affected Hammond's subsequent character and personality, leading to moody and depressive behaviour. Rumours of this nature circulated among his contemporaries for many years before Foot published his theory. That winter, Hammond coached in South Africa, where it was felt the climate might aid his recovery.
