Pucovski retires hurt again after being struck in head

Will Pucovski has been forced to retire hurt yet again after being struck by a bouncer in a Victorian second XI game against South Australia.

Pucovski, who has played one Test for Australia, was opening the batting and had grinded out 43 off 101 balls when he missed a short ball from seamer David Grant.

The 25-year-old initially carried on batting after consulting with medics, facing another four deliveries before retiring.

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Pucovski has had 10 concussions in his career, the most recent coming in February 2022 in a bizarre incident involving a volleyball while warming up for a Sheffield Shield match.

A short time after Monday's incident, Pucovski was spotted back in the nets at the Karen Rolton Oval, in a promising sign.

Soon after his appearance in the nets, Cricket Victoria released a statement clarifying that Pucovski had passed his concussion test and would resume batting in the match.

https://twitter.com/VicStateCricket/status/1749299284435251601?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfwhttps://twitter.com/bradeningram/status/1749285610756698397https://twitter.com/joshuadawe9/status/1749283570924109997

Despite only playing one Test, Pucovski has long been touted as a long-term option at the top of the Australian batting order.

In his lone Test against India at the SCG in 2021, he scored 62 in the first innings opening with David Warner, before Navdeep Saini had him trapped in front. He made 10 in the second innings.

Since then, he's been plagued with concussions, and took an extended mental health break from the game in October 2022.