Matt Machan has been forced to retire at 26 © Getty Images
Matt Machan, the Scotland and Sussex batsman, has announced his retirement from professional cricket, at 26, on medical advice.
Machan missed half of last season with a wrist injury – described by Sussex’s head coach Mark Davis as a “repetitive” injury” – and an operation last September failed to bring the solution he had anticipated.
Machan said: “It is with great sadness and an extremely heavy heart that I have to announce my retirement. Following medical advice, my long-term health is most important to me and I have to take that into account.
“I believe as a batsman I was only just starting to come into my own and it is a real shame that this has been cut short so early as I believe I had so much still to offer Sussex over the next few years.”
An aggressive left-handed batsman and offbreak bowler, Machan qualified for Scotland through his Scottish mother in 2012 and made an ODI debut against Afghanistan in Sharjah in 2013. He made his maiden international hundred, against Kenya, a few months later and played a part in Scotland’s 2015 World Cup campaign.
Sussex’s director of cricket, Keith Greenfield, said: “Matt has been part of Sussex cricket since he was 10 years of age, and it is sad that we will not see Matt continue to develop and deliver his talent on the pitch because of his wrist injury. His passion for the club has always been clear.”
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo