WHAT WAS CLAIMED
Images of former Australian cricketer Damien Martyn in hospital have been released.
OUR VERDICT
False. The images are AI-generated.
AAP FACTCHECK - Several Facebook pages are publishing fake images and quotes about former Australian cricketer Damien Martyn, who has been battling meningitis in hospital.
Martyn, who played 67 Test matches between 1992 and 2006, was admitted to a Queensland hospital in late December and put into an induced coma, the ABC reported.
Posts claiming to be about Martyn have subsequently been shared on Facebook and feature a mix of publicly available images and others created using artificial intelligence (AI).
Several of the posts feature AI-generated images claiming to be of Martyn in his hospital bed, but they bear little resemblance to the now 54-year-old pictured in more recent photos on his personal Instagram page.
Others use photos that seem to feature an AI-generated blonde woman implied to be his wife, or improbable images implied to be of Martyn in surgery.
The posts begin with emotional language and then tease more information with vague sentences.
One post states: "The wife of Damien Martyn, Australia's greatest former cricket player, choked up and burst into tears as she shared the family tragedy after Damien Martyn fell into critical condition".
It continues: "...And she revealed something about him that he had never disclosed about himself over the years."
In the comments, the posts then direct users to links to external web pages that feature more incorrect details in supposed news stories.
"He had to work as a waiter to take care of the family and pursue his dream," one page quotes his partner as saying.
There's no evidence Martyn ever did such work and the woman shown in the posts does not resemble his current partner.
Some of the posts use a 2006 photo from Getty Images of Martyn and his former wife Annika.
One of the posts includes an AI-generated image of Martyn and Annika in hospital, with Annika wearing the same dress seen in the legitimate 2006 image, and Martyn appearing to wear a business shirt while in a hospital bed.
However, Martyn has referred to a woman named Amanda Ward as his current partner on social media and she has been identified as his partner in several genuine news reports about his illness.
Fellow cricketer Adam Gilchrist referred to Ms Ward as Martyn's wife in reports by ESPN and in some other coverage of his hospitalisation.
The false stories also claim that "Martyn's wife" was interviewed from a hospital in Perth, but he was hospitalised at Gold Coast University Hospital in Queensland.
The former cricketer's friends and family issued a statement on January 5 that he was out of his coma and responding strongly to treatment.
The posts are being circulated by several disinformation Facebook pages that AAP FactCheck has debunked previously.
In recent months, they have spread falsehoods about Australian swimmers, Australian politics and the Bondi Beach terrorist attack.
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