Australia's 26-year-old cricketer Will Pucovski has been forced to retire from professional cricket. He was troubled with a series of injuries right through his career with a majority of them being the blows on his head resulting in concussion. Overall, Pucovski has been hit a massive 12 times on his head leading to him walking off or getting ruled out due to concussion.
He last took the field in March earlier this year, when fast bowler Riley Meredith hit him on the helmet during a Sheffield Shield encounter. Pucovski was compelled to retire then and hasn't played since then. The injury also forced him to opt out of the contract with Leicestershire. Moreover, he had earlier admitted that dealing with constant injuries had a toll on his mental and emotional well-being.
Coming back to his retirement, an Australian media organisation 9News reported that an independent panel of experts that included representatives from Cricket Australia, Cricket Victoria and independent medical experts decided to not Pucovski play professional retirement.
"My understanding is that an independent panel of experts recommended Pucovski retire three months ago, and all that’s left is for Cricket Victoria and his team to formalise that contractually. The news doesn’t come as a surprise to teammates of Pucovski who haven’t seen him at training all pre-season he’s been travelling overseas," the 9News reporter said.
Will Pucovski made his first-class debut in 2017 playing 36 matches in the format and featured in 14 list- A matches as well scoring 2350 and 333 runs respectively. He smashed seven centuries and nine fifties in red-ball cricket including a fifty in the only Test he played against India in 2021. His first-class average of 45.19 was decent enough to make it to the Australian team as well but repeated blows to the head have finally ended his career.
