Glenn McGrath's wife was not suffering a recurrence of breast cancer, the Australian cricket star's manager reportedly said.

McGrath was granted leave from Australia's tour of the West Indies after receiving medical advice about his wife, Jane.

He left London, where the team was in transit on its way to the Caribbean, to return home.

The NSW paceman's manager, Warren Craig, said Jane McGrath's condition was related to, but not a recurrence of, the breast cancer that caused her to have a mastectomy in 1997.

"It definitely is not breast cancer," Craig told the Sydney Morning Herald.

"It is linked, however. The condition is basically a derivative of that, but it can be treated.

"It is serious without being overly serious."

Jane was not in hospital and her husband seemed positive and upbeat, he said.

"Like any husband who is overseas when their wife gets diagnosed with something, you come home and sort it out and go from there," Craig said.

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