Will Pucovski is in line for another return to first-class cricket amid his torrid run with concussions, after Victoria named him for their next Sheffield Shield match.
Pucovski has been included in the Victorian side to meet Western Australia at the WACA from Wednesday, just over a month since his latest concussion blow.
The prodigious one-Test batter hasn’t played a first-class match since he was concussed by a soccer ball while warming up for the final day of Victoria’s clash with South Australia at Adelaide Oval on February 12.
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The 24-year-old Pucovski, who’s believed to have suffered 11 concussions, has since turned out for a Victorian XI against a Tasmanian outfit at Merv Hughes Oval in Footscray, as well as two club games with Melbourne.
Pucovski was cleared by a panel assembled by Cricket Australia and Cricket Victoria, which concluded that some of his reported concussions did not qualify as true concussions.
A Cricket Victoria statement said a panel was set up “including independent neurologists with expertise in the management of concussion in the sport”.
The panel deemed that some of his reported concussions were actually “a form of either post-traumatic migraine or (a) stress-related response”.
Pucovski made 62 against India in the first innings of last year’s SCG Test but is yet to add to his one appearance at the top level due to his concussion battle.
Former Australian cricket captain Mark Taylor cautioned against an early retirement following Pucovski’s latest concussion.
“I’m very reluctant to rule anyone out at the age of 24,” Taylor told Wide World of Sports.
“Obviously he has a higher susceptibility to these types of injuries. That’s fairly logical. But I’m certainly no expert on it so I don’t know what can and can’t be done.
“With the talent he’s got – he can certainly play – the age of 24 is too early to rule him out.
“It might be that he needs an extended period (away) and some sort of rehab program. I’m sure he is working with the experts to work out what that might look like.”
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