Once considered the next big thing in Australian cricket, Will Pucovski has been forced to retire at the age of 16. The reason, according to several reports, is his recurring head injuries and concussion. Pucovski, who had admitted that these blows affected his mental health, decided to retire after a recommendation from a panel of medical experts, 9News Melbourne reported on Thursday.

The former opener played only one Test in his career, against India in 2021 at Sydney. His shaggy hair coming out from beneath his helmet, Pucovski made a chancy 62 in the game in which he seemed to struggle against off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin before being dismissed by Navdeep Saini. He also suffered a shoulder injury during the match which sidelined him for six months.

“My understanding is that an independent panel of experts recommended Pucovski retire three months ago, and all that’s left is for Cricket Victoria and his team to formalise that contractually,” Tom Morris said on Nine News.

“The news doesn’t come as a surprise to teammates of Pucovski who haven’t seen him at training all pre-season, in fact he’s been travelling overseas.”

The report by 9News added a previous medical panel in 2022 found some of Pucovski’s head injuries were “not true concussions”, and were related to stress or trauma responses.

He was, however, first picked in the national team in January 2019 and came close to making his debut in the two-match Test series against Sri Lanka before being pipped by Kurtis Patterson.

Pucovski was concussed as recently as in March 2024, and was forced to retire hurt after Riley Meredith struck him on the helmet during a Sheffield Shield match.

The blow ruled him out of the rest of the Australian summer and also forced him to opt out of a contract with Leicestershire for the English summer.

In 36 first-class matches for Victoria, Pucovski scored 2,350 runs at 45.19 with seven hundreds.

He made his first-class debut in 2017 and though he did receive an offer from the Melbourne Stars in 2020/21, he has never played T20 cricket since the inception of the Big Bash League.

Pucovski was picked in the Test squad to face India after two double centuries for Victoria at Sheffield Shield. However, he was struck on the helmet while playing against the tourists for Australia A and suffered a concussion.

A series of concussion have plagued his career, contributing to his mental health issues and forcing him to take time off from the game. He tried his best to continue but the last episode of concussion in March prevented him from extending his career further.

He played for Victoria at Under-19 level, scored four centuries in a national championships and made his List A debut in a tour match against Pakistan in January 2017, following which he earned his Sheffield Shield debut. 

With PTI inputs