The FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar kicked off with a 30-minute opening ceremony at Al Bayt Stadium yesterday. Ahead of the premiere match between Qatar and Ecuador, BTS Singer Jung Kook and Hollywood Star Morgan Freeman stole the show with their musical performance and speech on hope, unity, and emotions, respectively.
While the viewers were thrilled to hear Freeman speak, his ‘golden hand’ caught everybody’s eye. Apparently, the Hollywood star was seen wearing a golden glove on his left hand during the opening ceremony. This got people on Twitter perplexed. Take a look at their reactions.
For everybody asking, Freeman has a condition called fibromyalgia, which he developed post a fatal car accident in 2008, that rendered his left hand useless. Apparently, he previously tried to conceal it with a compression glove.
As per Mayoclinic, fibromyalgia is a‘disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain accompanied by fatigue, sleep, memory and mood issues.‘
In an interview with Esquire in 2012, the actor seemed to be in pain when the interviewer, Tom Chiarella, explained “It hurts when he walks, when he sits still, when he rises from his couch, and when he missteps in a damp meadow. More than hurts. It seems a kind of agony, though he never mentions it.”
On being asked, the actor himself confirmed that it is fibromyalgia up and down his arm.
“Despite surgery to repair nerve damage, he was stuck with a useless left hand. It is stiffly gripped by a compression glove most of the time to ensure that blood doesn’t pool there. It is a clamp, his pain, an icy shot up a relatively useless limb,” Chiarella added.