Australian batsman Will Pucovski retired from professional cricket this week.
Pucovski hit 62 and 10 on Test debut against India in 2021. He never played international cricket again due to long-term concussion diagnoses.
“I wish I was coming in maybe under better circumstances. I’m not going to be playing cricket again. It’s been a really difficult year to put it as simply as possible,” the 27-year-old Pucovski told SEN in Australia.
“I’d need a few hours, I think, to take you through the whole journey, but the simple message is I won’t be playing cricket at any level again.
“I put a mountain of effort into getting things right off the field to be good on the field. It had always been my dream to play for Australia – I found myself in that position in 2021. My ambition didn’t stop there. I wanted to be that guy that was a leader of the batting unit.
“I wanted to play 100 Tests. Unfortunately, one Test is where it ends.”
Pucovski hit seven centuries and nine half-tons in seven years of first-class cricket. His final fixture was for Victoria against Tasmania in the Sheffield Shield in March 2024.
“In the couple of months post that last concussion I struggled to get anything done, walking around the house was a struggle. My fiancee was annoyed because I didn’t contribute to chores. I was sleeping a lot,” he added.
“From there it’s been a tough year, a lot of the symptoms didn’t go away which has led me to this decision. The first few months were horrendous, but things didn’t leave me.
“I’ve only just turned 27, the space of concussion is very young. Speaking to a lot of specialists, this is a difficult space to deal with.
“The technology isn’t quite there to understand what is what. When you have symptoms for over a year and I’ve had others for numerous years, it can be quite difficult to see how can I get out to play professional sport again when I’m struggling to live my life how I want to.”