Former Australia Test cricketer Will Pucovski, is taking legal action against his school, a year after he was forced to retire from professional cricket following repeated concussion injuries.
Pucovski has launched legal action against Brighton Grammar School, an all boys private school in a suburb of Melbourne, which Pucovski attended as a student. He alleges that the school mishandled the first serioud concussion injury he suffered, which he sustained playing football in 2014. That incident was the first of 13 concussions before he retired from cricket on medical advice last year.
Why is Will Pucovski suing his old school?
The incident named in the lawsuit occured in 2014, when Pucovski was knocked unconcious during football training after being accidentally kneed in the head. Speaking at a Lord's Taverners function earlier this year, Pucovski revealed details of the incident. "I literally got walked to the sidelines and then my only memory was the coach coming up to me and being like, 'Do you want to keep training?'. I am like, 'Yeah'. So I just went and trained for the rest of the day. It is probably the biggest day of my life in a weird way, because I have never felt the same since that day. I went from someone who would do anything and everything, to basically sitting on the couch doing nothing for an extended period."
The International Concussion Society warns of the dangers of missed concussions among young athletes: "The real concern starts when concussions are missed or inadequately addressed. This is particularly important to remember for young athletes and adolescents whose brains haven’t fully matured, which makes them more susceptible to serious brain injuries."
Pucovski went on to be a stand-out batter in the Sheffield Shielf for Victoria, and played one Test against india in 2021. However, repeated concussions led to significant injury lay-offs, and he also took a mental health break from cricket in 2018.
After suffering another severe concussion in March 2024 when he was hit on the head by a ball from Riley Meredith in a Sheffield Shield game, Pucovski retired from professional cricket, aged 26, on the advice of an independent medical panel. Speaking at the time of his retirement, Pucovski told SEN Radio: "In the couple of months post that [last concussion] I struggled to get anything done, walking around the house was a struggle. My fiancée was annoyed because I didn't contribute to chores. I was sleeping a lot."
Concussion protocols in sport have rapidly developed over the last 10 years. The ICC first approved concussion subs for use in international cricket in 2019, and Marnus Labuschagne became the first-ever concussion substitute in a Test match in the 2019 Ashes, coming into play after Steve Smith was floored by a Jofra Archer bouncer.
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