This week marks the 10^th anniversary of the tragic death of Australian Test cricketer Phillip Hughes. On November 25 2014, he was playing in a Shield match for South Australia at the SCG. At the time Hughes was in good form and was widely tipped to be selected in the upcoming  First Test  against India. On that fateful day he was batting beautifully according to all present until he inexplicably missed a straightforward short ball and was hit in the neck. He immediately collapsed to the ground deeply unconscious. But for the outstanding immediate management from the medical team led by Cricket Australia Chief Medical Officer John Orchard, Phil would have died on the spot. Instead he was transferred unconscious but alive to St Vincent’s Hospital where he underwent urgent surgery to relieve the pressure on the brain.

At the time I was the Australian cricket team doctor and back home in Melbourne in between the just completed one day series against South Africa and the Test series which was about to commence. I came out of a meeting in the city to see a message that Phil had been hit and that “it looked bad”. I jumped straight into my car and headed for the airport calling Cricket Australia to get me on the next flight to Sydney.

I got to the hospital in the early evening and received an update from Dr Orchard. The news was not great, Phil had a large brain bleed and was being kept alive on a respirator, but the specialists thought there was a chance that he might survive if the pressure in the brain could be lowered. I sent the emotionally traumatised Dr Orchard home and went upstairs to join Phil’s mother and sister who had been watching the game at the SCG and his close friend and Test captain Michael Clarke. We were later joined by Phil’s brother Jason and then his father Greg.

I spent the night sitting in the waiting room outside the Intensive Care unit and was joined by Phil’s friend and manager James Henderson. The following morning the news was not encouraging and Phil’s condition worsened. Late that morning the specialists called Phil’s family in and told them the devastating news that their son and brother was not going to survive. They offered to keep Phil alive on the respirator for as long as the family wished.

By this time, most of Phil’s Australian team mates had arrived in Sydney and they were all given the opportunity to say their farewell to Phil. It was my job to take them up to the ICU two at a time. Many were overcome with grief when they saw Phil lying unconscious with tubes everywhere. I also had the unpleasant task in two separate phone hookups of telling Phil’s South Australian teammates who by that time had returned home, and the Cricket Australia Board, that Phil was not going to survive. The deathly silence when I imparted that news was a memory that remains with me today.

For most of Phil’s young team mates it was the first time they had ever known someone who was dying, let alone a young man of their own age in the prime of his cricket career. Phil was an enormously popular cricketer and it you had run a poll on the most loved player in the first class cricket scene, then Phil would have been a runaway winner.

Personally I had got to know Phil on the previous year’s Ashes tour where we sat across from each other on the team bus – everyone had a set seat that rarely changed – and he was always asking questions. I got to love his cheeky grin. He had two great passions – cricket and his Angus cattle – a love he shared with his dad.

After 24 hours the family made the decision to turn off the life support and soon after Philip passed away. I had been keeping the cricket public up to date with Phil’s progress in regular press briefings and when it was decided to hold a press conference following the announcement of Phil’s death, I asked to speak. I wanted to convey a number of things in my address.

Firstly I wanted to pay tribute to the care he received both initially at the ground and subsequently in the hospital. I also wanted to pay tribute to Michael Clarke who had been a tower of strength to the family over the previous 48 hours. Most of all I wanted to reassure the Australian cricket public that this was a freak accident, a one in a million chance, and that it was not going to happen to them.

After the press conference we all walked down to the SCG where the cricket community had gathered, and I guess that is when it really hit home to me as we looked out on the pitch where only a couple of days before, Phillip had been putting together another brilliant innings. I particularly got emotional speaking to one of my sons who was in the US at the time and realising that he was almost exactly Phil’s age. I could not even imagine what Phil’s parents were going through.

The following morning the Test team gathered at the SCG to decide how to handle the ensuing few days. We were due to play a Test match in Brisbane the following week and the players unanimously agreed that they could not even consider playing until after the funeral which they all wanted to attend. The funeral was later fixed to be held the following Wednesday and the Test schedule altered so we would play the first Test a few days later in Adelaide.

The funeral in Phil’s home town of Macksville was an emotional, moving occasion with Michael Clarke speaking beautifully and a number of his team mates acting as pallbearers. Phil’s death had had a huge impact both in Australia and in the wider cricket world. Most Australian houses placed a cricket bat beside their front door as a tribute, and the funeral was nationally televised and attended by many dignitaries including the Prime Minister.

After the funeral we flew straight to Adelaide where we had four days before facing India in the First Test. What was uncertain was how the players would cope with the prospect of facing fast bowling. Wisely, coach Darren Lehmann scheduled a low key first practice away from the Adelaide Oval. Most of the batters struggled, a number having to leave the nets after a couple of deliveries.

I remember thinking at the time that there was no way we were going to be ready for a Test match in a few days. Slowly each day things got better and by the start of the Test most seemed to be OK.

The start of the match was another highly emotional moment when a tribute to Phil from Richie Benaud was played while the teams lined up. It was something that was of course very appropriate, but hardly the ideal preparation for our batsmen who were about to face India’s quick bowlers. Phil’s memory was everywhere during that Test with his Test cap number 408 emblazoned on the turf and every time that number or the number 63, which was Phil’s not out score in that final fateful innings, came up the players and the crowd became very emotional. Interestingly the three players who were probably closest to Phil all made centuries in that first Australian innings. I knew right from the start that there was no way Michael Clarke in particular, was not going to make a ton. Phil had always regarded Michael as his “big brother” and the two were very close.

The match, which on the final day was meandering towards a draw, suddenly came to life with an inspired spell from Nathan Lyon and Australia pulled off an unexpected victory. After the game we all stood in a circle around the 408 sign on the turf and sang the Australian team song with even more gusto than usual. There was not a dry eye among the team and support staff.

Phil had died from an injury known as a vertebral artery dissection in which, due to the impact of the ball at a particular spot in his neck, damaged the lining of the artery causing a subarachnoid haemorrhage in his brain. Phil’s death prompted me to investigate if there were other incidents of a similar injury either in cricket or other sports. I discovered that there had been a few isolated incidents in other sports such as ice hockey, baseball and golf, all when an object struck a player in the neck and mostly resulting in immediate death. There had been one previous cricket death recorded in Melbourne 21 years previously when a batter was hit in the neck at net practice.

While these incidents were incredibly rare, the horrific consequences encouraged cricket authorities to look at ways of protecting the neck from a similar blow. As a result, neck guards were developed and initially offered as an option for batters, later becoming part of the helmet design. Nowadays all batsmen have protection to the neck area. Ironically one of the batters most reluctant to wear the neck guard was Steve Smith who was struck in the neck while batting in the 2019 Lords Test. That incident brought back bad memories for those watching and when Smith dropped to the ground, many feared the worst. Fortunately Steve was not seriously injured and, after initially leaving the field, he was able to return and went on to make 92.

Phil Hughes’ death was a massive shock to the cricketing world – you are not supposed to die playing cricket. It leaves us with memories of a prodigiously talented batsmen and much loved team mate who undoubtedly would have gone on to a long international career in all forms of the game. We all miss you Hugh.

Peter Brukner was the Australian cricket team doctor from 2012 to 2017.