Melbourne Renegades wicketkeeper Peter Nevill will miss the rest of the Big Bash League cricket season after he burst a blood vessel in his face when he was hit by a cricket bat during his side's win over Adelaide Strikers.
Peter Nevill. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Nevill was looking the other way when he was hit in the 18th over of the Strikers' run chase.
The bat slipped out of Adelaide batsman Brad Hodge's hands, flew into the air and the handle caught Nevill on the cheekbone as he stood behind the stumps, felling the keeper.
The 31-year-old could not continue and left the Adelaide Oval pitch with a visibly swollen face.
The Australia international was taken to hospital for X-rays on a suspected fractured jaw, but it was confirmed on Tuesday morning that it was in fact a burst blood vessel in his face.
Hodge said he had swapped to new batting gloves the ball prior to the incident.
"If you have brand new gloves they have got like this powdery feel to it and it [the bat] just slipped straight out of my hands," Hodge said.
"I tried to grab it and hold onto it - if I had of just let it go it probably would have gone out to square leg, but I sort of just tugged it round and it him right in the side of the jaw."
Marcus Harris top-scored with 85 as the Renegades scored 171, with the Strikers falling six runs short in their 20 overs.
It is the second time in a week Nevill has been forced from the field with a head injury, after he was hit by a fielder's throw against Sydney Sixers.
-BBC, ABC
