Concussion forces Keep to give it away
GOLD Coast Cricket star and former Tasmanian cricketer Trent Keep has called time on an illustrious career after a shock concussion injury left him hospitalised for days.
Keep, 29, was training with the Broadbeach Robina Cats when a ball hit the back of his head in a “freak accident” last Wednesday, forcing him to hang up the bat after decades in the sport.
“I think the second the ball hit me on Wednesday I knew this was probably going to be the end result,” Keep said.
“It was obviously a bit difficult to watch the boys (Broadbeach) win the grand final on Sunday, but you’re as equally
proud and happy as you are a bit miserable that you’re not there.
“I don’t think it will sink in until the season’s over and everyone heads back to preseason next year.
“Ultimately, it was a pretty easy decision given the circumstance and it’s something that I’ve wrestled with for a while now. I’m happy enough have made that call.”
Keep was walking out at a net session at Broadbeach when the ball from the next session hit him in the back of the head, leaving him hospitalised at the Gold Coast University Hospital until Monday afternoon.
“I just remember the first thought (when I was hit) was here we go again really,” he said. “The symptoms were certainly there from the get go, I went straight to the hospital and the rest was a bit of a blur until about Saturday morning.”
Keep was on a league high before his injury, as the Taper Premier League’s second highest run-scorer, a regular Team of the Week member and part of the coaching team to help Broadbeach to their one day grand final victory on Sunday.
But the head knock was one of many for Keep, who was first hit while battling in the Blundstone Arena nets in 2018, and then knocked out while marking in a Aussie rules game in 2020.
His concussion issues forced him to sit out the 2020-21 Cricket Tasmania Premier League season for the Kingborough Knights just months after taking out the competition’s highest individual honour, the Emerson Rodwell medal.