Amateur cricket player, Billy Cookson was seriously injured in a head-on car crash in October 2018 he suffered punctured lungs, a torn liver, a broken leg, and both ankles, and a shattered right arm in Australia left the hospital for the first time in January 2019.
“I haven’t been discharged yet and won’t be for a couple of months,” he said.
Billy Cookson, 23, originally from Chippenham, a town in Wiltshire, was playing for the Redbacks as opening batsman and wicketkeeper.
He had traveled to Melbourne to play cricket for Kyabram Cricket Club but on his first day as a tools delivery driver a job that would pay for a winter of cricket, his pick-up truck collided with a bus.
Update from Australia, surgery today to get my new elbow. My body has bridge a gap of 8cm in my femur which the surgeon has never seen before, and I’m now putting on some timber (65.3 kg). Things are looking up. In a bit.
— Billy Cookson (@B_cookson95) February 7, 2019
Billy had only played two games for Kyabram but had already made a strong impression on the playing group and wider community. Kyabram Cricket Club president Tim Nelson said: “He could talk to anybody and was just so positive all the time – so that’s one thing keeping our heads up high.”
His family says it could be nine months before he is fit enough to return home, As he continues his long recovery, Billy Cookson said he was determined to play cricket again one day.
