Former Australia opener retires from cricket aged 27 due to concussions

Will Pucovski has suffered 13 concussions in his career and was advised to quit playing by a medical panel

Will Pucovski has retired from cricket after suffering 13 concussions in his career (Getty)

Will Pucovski has retired from cricket due to repeated concussions.

The 27-year-old was once a rising star in Australian cricket. Tipped to nail down an opening spot in the team, he only played in one Test match for Australia. His debut was on 7 January 2021 against India, where he scored 62 in his maiden innings and 10 in his second. During that Test he picked up a shoulder injury that ruled him out of cricket for six months.

But, more concerningly, throughout his career Pucovski was hampered by concussions, having repeatedly been struck on the head while batting.

The Victorian last played in the Sheffield Shield in March 2024. He was hit on the helmet by a delivery from the Tasmania fast bowler Riley Meredith and suffered concussion. It was the 13th concussion of his career and was the impetus to call it a day.

A medical panel assessed Pucovski after that game and recommended he retire in September 2024. He announced his retirement on 8 April.

“I’m not going to be playing cricket again,” Pucovski told Australia’s Sports Entertainment Network. “It’s been a really difficult year, to put it as simply as possible. The simple message is, I won’t be playing at any level again.

“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.

“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.”

Pucovski tries to evade a short ball during a Sheffield Shield match in 2022 (Getty)

Speaking further about the physical and mental impact the concussions have had, Pucovski added: “There’s a lot of fatigue, which is quite bad, I still get regular headaches, I struggle with a weird thing that has been absolutely bizarre to me, I really struggle with things on my left side.

“It’s pretty tough at the moment, I really struggled watching any of the cricket over the summer knowing I wasn’t involved, especially the Test series and even tracking the [Sheffield] Shield stuff was pretty hard because I was just desperate to be part of it and it’s hard being on the sidelines.

“I think long term, it’s probably been my first great love in a way. You’re always going to come back and always have that desire to help.

“If I can’t play at the level that I want to play at, then hopefully helping other people get there, or potentially in the long run working in the sports administration side. I’ve always been pretty passionate about business and sports business and that kind of thing, and also the high-performance side and getting the best out of people. The beauty is there’s always different avenues to get that fix.”

Pucovski played one Test match for Australia, against India in 2021 (AP)

Pucovski hopes to remain in the sport and has already performed some commentary duties with Australia’s Channel 7 and is thinking about moving into sports business.

He is still managing symptoms from the concussions, as well as other medical and mental health problems, but he no longer has the threat of facing fast bowling from 22 yards.