Concussed Maxwell to miss England game following freak fall

Glenn Maxwell will miss Australia's next World Cup match against England in Ahmedabad after suffering from concussion following a freak injury when he slipped and fell off the back of a golf cart on Monday (October 30). Though Maxwell is said to have not suffered any other major injuries, he has gone under concussion protocols, which will prevent him from being available for the match on Saturday (November 4). He's however expected to be fit and available for the next match against Afghanistan and for the remainder of the tournament.

It was head coach Andrew McDonald who revealed the details of the "unfortunate accident" that occurred at around 6.30 pm on Monday at the conclusion of the Australian team's "golf day".

"In transporting back from the clubhouse to the team bus, where Glenn Maxwell come 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 McDonald.

He then clarified that there wouldn't be a replacement needed for Maxwell, who is being monitored by the medical staff.

"There'll be no replacement as such. So he'll go into like, it's six to eight days concussion protocol. So as I said, that takes into account the England game who will be unavailable for that game. And then clearly within the squad, we've got some players who become available in Marcus Stoinis and Cameron Green is available as well. So, we haven't made that decision as yet," said McDonald.

It's learnt that once the golf was done, the players stayed back for another half hour or so for some speeches in a clubhouse, which was slightly further away from the main precinct. It meant that the players had to then use golf carts to get back to the team bus. But there weren't enough carts around for all of them to seated while being ferried back, leading to some of the players and staff including Maxwell jumping on to the back of the carts. Though it was only to cover a short distance of around 300 meters to the bus, Maxwell lost his grip leading to the concussion.

McDonald reiterated that there was nothing "untoward" in the behaviour and that it was nothing more than a "clear-cut accident". Maxwell was spotted walking around the team hotel on Wednesday (November 1) and is learnt to be recovering well despite having a bit of a gash on his forehead.

"It was (while) going from the clubhouse slash pro shop back to the team bus. The guys were ferried 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. So and over the last couple of days, he's been assessed. We feel as though it'll be a relatively straightforward return to play protocol, with where he's at the moment. It doesn't seem on the severe side. And I suppose the fortunate part of it was that there was no other injury sustained, which could have been a lot worse than what it currently is, albeit not ideal," the coach said.

"There was nothing untoward in the behaviour throughout the whole day. It was just a clear-cut accident. And unfortunately, as I said, it's compromised what we do moving forward as a team, which is the unfortunate part, but to reiterate that he's doing well, and he's fine. And there'll be no long-term repercussions," the head coach said.

Maxwell is expected to return to some "light" training from later on Wednesday while McDonald did commend the experienced all-rounder for having been very open about how he'd been feeling post the mini-accident.

"The honesty of the player is important. And I think this is where Maxi's put his hand up. Yeah, I've suffered this small knock and I do have these symptoms, there's no doubt that potentially, you could report otherwise. And potentially, I suppose navigate through it differently. But that's not his style. That's not our style. As I said, we respect the return to play protocols around concussion, it's really important to protect our players. And that's, that's what we're doing," he said.

Maxwell is coming off