In a revealing and emotive exchange, Chris Rogers has detailed the deep physical and psychological effects of several blows to the head in the final year of his international career, and how they contributed to his retirement decision.

Speaking on ABC Grandstand, where he is an expert commentator, Rogers also explained the change in mindset from players following the death of Phillip Hughes.

Rogers said the awareness and anxiety about the dangers of the game in the nearly 12 months that have elapsed since Hughes’s passing had gone “all the way through world cricket, and rightfully so”.

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“I just think we thought we were invincible,” Rogers said.

“Everything had been magnified … it took that incident to really put things in perspective, and you look back now and it was just a horrible time, a horrible time.”

Rogers was asked to field short leg by stand-in captain Brad Haddin in Adelaide last year, the Test played in tribute to Hughes. He obliged, but told of how he resented being asked at that stage of his career.

Rogers took some sharp catches for Australia. Photo: Getty

In the next Test at Brisbane, he was struck by a forceful sweep shot that struck his helmet. Rogers, who consulted the team psychologist after the incident, says this was the first time he considered his international retirement.

“The first thing he (Haddin) said was ‘Buck, you need to get your helmet and box’. And I did a double take, I looked behind me, ‘who is he talking to?’, and I realised I had to go in there.

“I wasn’t the bravest soul in there, you are supposed to just duck and present the top of your helmet, but of course I did a pirouette and jumped and turned my head and hit me right on the back of the helmet.

“I was lucky there was no damage done, it actually hit the helmet and after everything that happened (in the previous month) the doc came running out and said ‘are you okay?’ and I actually pushed him away.

“I was just so angry, and I was pretty upset that night I must admit. Michael Lloyd, the psychologist, came and really spent some time with me. So it can really shake you up.

“I was just so angry at having to be in there. I felt I was too old to be in there; probably didn’t have the reflexes I used to.

“I actually think I started to contemplate retirement then. I thought, I’ve been hit in the head by Stuart Broad in the Ashes as well the previous one at the MCG and I started to think that I don’t know if this is the right thing to be doing anymore. I’d been pretty lucky in my career, how much more luck am I going to have?

“But when you get asked to field at short leg for Australia you don’t say no, you say, ‘absolutely, I’ll do what the team needs’.”

Double head blow contributed to decision to retire

Chris Rogers (R) is helped by David Warner after appearing to suffer a dizzy spell in the second Ashes Test at Lord’s.

Rogers was hit in the head twice more before calling it quits, first by a local net bowler in Dominica before Australia’s first Test in June, missing both Tests on that Caribbean tour as a result.

“I thought I was okay initially, and it wasn’t until the next day I tried to do some exercise and almost fell over. So, that was a bit bizarre actually because I didn’t get hit that hard, but it must have got me in line with the temple on the helmet,” he said.

Rogers in his role as a commentator. Photo: Getty

“And even the second Test I was still struggling to really to do any exercise without the effects of it. I’d start to feel really sick, my vision was really narrow.”

Rogers says that he briefly considered retirement at this point. However the lure of a final England tour and advice of the medical staff that the blows did not constitute a “cumulative effect” were enough for him to continue.

It was there he was struck a final time with the first ball of the second day of the Ashes Test at Lord’s, when he was resuming on 158.

“I thought he (Jimmy Anderson) was going to bowl a nice little half volley loosener outside off stump, but he bumped me,” he said.

Rogers completed that innings but retired hurt in the second dig, unable to see straight or keep his feet suffering the effects of the inner ear injury brought on by strike.

Rogers announced before the fifth and final Ashes Test that he would retire just short of his 38th birthday after 25 Tests. His batting average of 60 on that final tour led all comers.

Despite the superlative form in which he ended his playing career, the dangers associated with his craft are part of why he does not regret having given it away.

“When you look back and think about all those incidents happening, it is kind of nice to be up here in the commentary box. It’s a bit of a relief.”

-ABC