An expert in concussion says Will Pucovski must be “pretty close” to retiring from cricket after the 24-year-old was forced to pull out of Victoria’s most recent Sheffield Shield match.
The prodigiously talented batter suffered his 11th concussion on the weekend after kicking a volleyball up into his own head during a warm-up, sparking fears for his long-term health.
Cricket Victoria’s Shaun Graf told the ABC yesterday that Pucovski understands the seriousness of the situation but wants to continue playing.
READ MORE: Ben Simmons opens up on ‘dark times’ after messy 76ers exit
READ MORE: Russian Olympian’s tears in return to competition after doping controversy
READ MORE: F1 star hired bodyguards after Abu Dhabi fiasco
“He’s realistic about it, but he’s still very much in the corner that he wants to keep playing and we’ll support that,” Graf said.
“However, if the medical advice is contrary to that, we need to have a very hard discussion.”
Wide World of Sports spoke to Dr Adrian Cohen, an expert in head trauma, about the concerns for Pucovski’s future.
“The most important thing for Will is to be properly assessed on an ongoing basis. It’s not good enough to go and see the doctor only when he gets hit,” he told Wide World of Sports.
“The ticking timebomb with Will Pucovski is the repeated injuries to the brain, and he’s only got one brain, and it has limited ability to absorb those impacts and recover from them.
“If he gets told it’s time to hang up the bat, it’s not because his heart’s not big enough, not because he hasn’t got the talent, it’s for his own long-term welfare.
“Depending on the medical advice he’s getting, he’d have to be pretty close to that point.”
Dr Cohen pointed out that it’s impossible for sports to have a black-and-white rule to deal with the issue.
“It doesn’t matter if the injury occurs in the front seat of a car, playing in the forwards in the NRL or batting in cricket, it’s all about the transfer of energy to your brain and the number of times it happens, and the damage that’s done,” he explained.
“Whether it’s an elite player like Will Pucovski or Steve Smith, or a junior player, the question is always, ‘How many is too many?’
“And there isn’t a simple answer, because everyone is different, and every injury is different.
“You can’t make a hard and fast rule for someone like Pucovski, you’ve only got guidelines you can work with.”
Dr Cohen said Australia remains 5-10 years behind America in the treatment of head injuries in sport, noting that concussion needs to be treated much differently to other injuries.
“The brain doesn’t heal in the same way that other tissues in the body do,” he said.
“If you strain your knee ligament, you do your rehab and there’s a good chance you can play again shortly afterwards. The brain isn’t like that.
“We don’t have any magic treatment, there’s no pills that we keep on the top shelf just for brain injuries.
“The major treatment for concussion is Panadol, and if that doesn’t work we double the dose. There are no wonder drugs that we can prescribe.”
Cricket has only recently introduced concussion substitutes into the game, highlighting how the issue has been ignored for so long, although attitudes are changing quickly and significantly.
But according to Dr Cohen, there’s still much to learn.
“Sport will increasingly come to some kind of consensus about when enough is enough,” he remarked.
“It won’t be a three strikes and you’re out rule, there’ll have to be some sort of formal assessment, ideally by an independent neurologist who is well versed in concussion.
“One of the things I say is that concussion creates concussion. The more you have, the more you get, the easier you get them and the longer you take to recover.
“The bottom line is the longer term problems are not inconsequential.”
For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!