"He's pretty hopeful"- Chris Rogers confirms Will Pucovski wants to keep playing at the highest level

Young Australian opener Will Pucovski has expressed his desire to continue playing the sport at the highest level despite a series of multiple concussions.

The 21-year-old communicated his decision to Cricket Victoria during a meeting between Cricket Australia and the former, which was convened by the two boards to discuss the long-term future of the opener.

Victoria head coach Chris Rogers confirmed the same during a podcast on SEN Radio on Wednesday (February 23).

"There's conversations that are happening in the background. Will's indicated that he wants to keep playing, so we just have to weigh up everything that's happening at the moment," Rogers told SEN Radio.

Pucovski suffered his 11th concussion last month during a Shield game against South Australia. The young batter, who was making a comeback after a 1-year layoff due to a shoulder injury he suffered while fielding in his debut Test against India in January 2020, suffered a setback during a warm-up session and was eventually substituted after he expressed discomfort.

Following yet another concussion, pundits and fans have been calling for the batsman and the authorities to take a call on his future keeping in mind his long term health.

However, Rogers had then urged people to not jump the gun on Pucovski's future.

The 21-year-old was in attendance at the Junction Oval during the drawn game between Victoria and Queensland last week.

"He's been in and around Junction Oval a few times over the past  four days of the Shield game (last weekend against Queensland). We'll have a chat with him to see how he's going," said Rogers.

The former Test opener said that Pucovski is "pretty hopeful" of continuing playing at the highest level.

"I think he's pretty hopeful, we just have to have those conversations and make sure that everything's okay. I'm sure that that'll play out." he added.

Meanwhile, Cricket Victoria general manager Shaun Graf, has echoed Rogers' comments but affirmed that the board might be forced to take a 'tough call' if the medical advice is to the contrary.

"He's realistic about it, but he's still very much in the corner that he wants to keep playing and we'll support that," he told SEN Radio.

"However, if the medical advice is contrary to that, we need to have a very hard discussion," he added.

Pucovski has long been earmarked as the next big thing in Australian cricket. The talented opener has an average of 53.42 after just 25 First-Class games but it remains to be seen whether his talent will materialize into a long, successful career given his unfortunate tryst with concussions.