Australia's 26-year-old star forced to retire from professional cricket after just one International match - check details

26-year-old former Australian Test opener Will Pucovski has been forced to retire from professional cricket. Pucovski has confronted a long series of injuries all through his career, most of them because of blows on the head that resulted in a concussion. In March 2024, he was concussed and compelled to retire hurt after Riley Meredith hit him on the helmet during a Sheffield Shield match. It forced him to opt out of a contract with Leicestershire for the English summer of 2024 and also kept him out of the remainder of the Australian summer. Aside from the actual blows, Pucovski agreed that dealing with constant injuries had a huge effect on his mental and emotional well-being.

His state association, Cricket Victoria, did offer him a contract in 2024/25, but there was a catch. CV was told by Cricket Australia that it would have to keep the contract until Pucovski was evaluated by a committee that included representatives from CA, CV, and independent medical experts. An Australian media organisation 9News has reported that the committee has decided to not let Pucovski play professional cricket, meaning he would have to retire at the age of 26.

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"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. 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 traveling overseas," said the 9News reporter.

Pucovski scored 2,350 runs at an average of 45.19 in 36 first-class matches, including seven hundreds. In his one and only Test match, against India in Sydney in 2020/21, he scored 62 and 10. Despite signing a contract with the Melbourne Stars in 2020/21, he remains the only Australian international cricketer to never have played T20 cricket since the BBL's inception.

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