Star Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell has been ruled out of the ODI World Cup 2023 match against England in Ahmedabad on November 4 after suffering concussion in a golf-related incident.
The 35-year-old Maxwell was standing on the back of a moving golf cart in the dark after a round at Kalhaar Blues and Greens golf club in Ahmedabad when he lost his grip and fell off, suffering a concussion and some facial bruising.
He is expected to be under Cricket Australia’s concussion protocols for six to eight days. However, allrounder has not been replaced in the squad and Australia are hopeful he will only miss one game.
“In transporting him back from the clubhouse to the team bus, Glenn Maxwell came off the back of a cart and has suffered a small concussion, so he will go into concussion protocols for the next period of time and will unfortunately miss the England game,” said Australian coach Andrew McDonald.
“The guys were ferried off on carts. Glenn and a few other players jumped on the back of carts and unfortunately he lost his grip on the way back to the team bus and sustained that injury. It was just a clear-cut accident … he’s an important player for us, hopefully it’s just the one game he misses.
There’ll be no replacement (in the squad) as such, he’ll go into six to eight days concussion protocol. We feel as though it’ll be a relatively straightforward return to play protocol with where he’s at at the moment,” he added.
Notably, this is the second time that Maxwell has suffered a freak accident in less than 12 months. He previously broke his leg at a private party last November, an injury from which he only recently recovered.
Maxwell’s absence will be dearly felt by Australia, as he had recently shown great form in the tournament. He has scored 196 runs at a strike-rate of 148.48 in the tournament, including a 106 from 44 against the Netherlands in Delhi — the record fastest Men’s Cricket World Cup hundred.
The all-rounder should be back for Australia’s match against Afghanistan in Mumbai next week, their penultimate group-stage game before the semi-finals.
“He’s doing well. He’ll start some light exercise today and we feel as though it will be a relatively straightforward return to play,” said McDonald.
“It doesn’t feel like it was on the severe side. The fortunate part of it was there were no other injuries sustained – it could have been a lot worse than it is,” he added.