The future of Will Pucovski is again up in the air after the star batter suffered a sickening knock to the head in Victoria's Sheffield Shield clash with Tasmania in Hobart.
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Pucovski, facing just his second ball on Sunday, was struck on the side of the helmet after ducking into a rising Riley Meredith delivery.
The 26-year-old immediately hit the turf as players rushed in to check on his welfare.
Pucovski spent the next several minutes on all fours as medical staff attended to him, with the star batter dry-heaving several times.
He eventually made it to his feet and slowly staggered off the ground to retire hurt.
Victoria later announced Campbell Kellaway would replace Pucovski in the game as a concussion sub.
"Pucovski ... is being monitored by medical staff," Victoria said in a statement.
"More information will be provided at a later stage."
Sunday's blow raises fresh doubts not only over Pucovski's cricket career, but also his short and long-term health given his devastating concussion history.
He had suffered at least 11 concussions in his career before the current Shield match, and it remains to be seen how heavily the latest knock impacts him.
The right-hander played his sole Test in 2021, but took time away from the game in 2022 for mental health reasons.
Just last month, Pucovski posted his first Shield century in more than three years to spark hope that he could get his career back on track.
He also spoke openly on the Vic State Cricket Podcast earlier this year about his concussion and mental health battles, believing they are linked.
"I sort of link the mental health stuff back to my first concussion ... which was when I was about 15 or 16," Pucovski said.
"I have a lot of concussion symptoms that over a seven or eight year period, actually never subsided.
"You just sort of got used to having them in a way. The brain's pretty amazing and can find ways to adapt.
"I would fail concussion tests in the exact same way every single time, regardless of whether I had been hit in the head, and that was over a seven or eight year period."
Pucovski said it was actually his mental health battles that had been the bigger issue over his career, revealing they had come close to causing him to retire.
"I try to see concussion as an injury that has happened in the past. If you get hit, just deal with it again, you'll be OK," he said.
"But the mental health side, it's been about accepting that's my bigger challenge.
"Concussion stuff's one thing. I feel like I've ticked off a lot in that space. The mental side is what's going to be a bit more challenging.
"That desire and want to be a professional cricketer and play at the highest level has never gone away, but I've just had these challenges that have been pretty big road blocks.
"But I feel like after years of searching, I've found a solution to that to a very strong degree.
"I'm not expecting that it's going to be a clean run and that it's going to be all sunshine and rainbows from here. But the positivity I've generated from that is absolute huge."
Australian Associated Press
