Nazizi shares how she overcame years of severe knee pain
By William Muthama, August 7, 2026Veteran Musician Nazizi Hirji has opened up about her battle with severe knee pain, revealing how the injury affected her daily life and forced her to stop training.
Speaking about her experience on Friday, August 7, 2026, Nazizi said she was diagnosed with chondromalacia patella after undergoing a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), with the injury graded at level four.
She said the condition became so severe that she had to wear a brace on her left leg and use a crutch to walk.
“I was really depressed first because I went to the orthopaedic surgeon and they told me, like, chondromalacia patella is the injury I have. I did an MRI; it was, like, a grade four injury, and it’s like you can’t do sports, you can’t train,” she said.
Injury changed life
Nazizi said her background in football and intense training made the situation difficult, especially after she was forced to stop exercising.
She recalled going to work at Vibes while using a crutch, describing the period as miserable.
“I was working at Vibes, you can imagine, with my crutch every day to work. Oh my gosh. I was just so miserable,” she said.
Doctors recommended surgery, but Nazizi said she was worried about undergoing the procedure and its effect on her active lifestyle.
“When they said surgery, and I was like, there’s no coming back from surgery. I’ve seen people and the stories, and I’m like, at my age now, do the surgery, I’m gonna be done,” she recalled.
Her father, who has a medical background, later encouraged her to explore stem cell treatment after reading about athletes who had undergone the procedure.
Pain finally eased
Nazizi eventually sought treatment and said she noticed a major difference after her first session.
“The next day I woke up, I was walking… no pain, no nothing… like miracles,” she said.
She recalled throwing away her crutch and eventually returning to walking and running.
“The crutch was thrown uko the thing. I was walking again, I was running. I was like, ‘Ah,’ this thing, you know? Yeah. It’s magic. It’s like magic,” she said.
Nazizi said the experience also strengthened her friendship with the medical practitioner who treated her.
She began sharing her recovery with friends and family, who had witnessed how much the injury had affected her.
Return to training
Nazizi said she had completely stopped exercising during the worst period of her injury because she could no longer do her favourite leg workouts.
“I stopped training completely. Like, completely, ’cause my favourite workouts were legs, and now I can’t train legs. I’m like, ‘Why bother?’” she said.
She said she has remained pain-free since the treatment, with only a touch-up procedure done about two years ago.
Nazizi said her experience taught her not to accept persistent pain as part of everyday life.
“I always tell people it, it could be a sports injury, it could be just a normal ageing thing. But pain is not something you should get used to living with,” she said.