Doctors: Langer risks death

The most recent in a long line of blows to the head for Justin Langer will not be career-threatening – but, bizarrely, it could turn out to be life-threatening, according to Cricket Australia’s medical officer Trevor James.

Langer himself claims that the injury feels like nothing more than “a massive hangover”, and that “there are definitely no worries about the future”. The blow he received from Makhaya Ntini with the first ball of his 100th Test has kept him out of the forthcoming series against Bangladesh, but he remains confident he will be fit for this year’s Ashes series.

James, however, says that with another blow to the head for Langer, the risk of fatality is “extremely small, but not zero”. Cricket Australia will continue to monitor Langer’s condition, and doctors have forbidden him from fielding at short leg in future, where he has taken blows to the head in the past.