Melbourne Stars’ Sam Harper taken to hospital in stable condition after scary nets incident

There were concerning scenes at Melbourne Stars training on Friday, with keeper-batsman Sam Harper involved in a scary incident at the Melbourne Cricket Ground nets.

The Stars confirmed in a statement to foxsports.com.au that Harper was struck in the head whilst batting at training and was taken to hospital in a stable condition.

Tom Morris, who first reported the news, wrote that “those who saw the incident were visibly shaken and emotional”. One witness described the incident as “gruesome”.

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Harper has a history of concussion and head knocks, having been involved in a nasty collision with Nathan Ellis in a game between the Renegades and Hurricanes in early 2020.

That was understood to be his eighth concussion according to The Sydney Morning Herald, who reported at the time that Harper first suffered head knocks while playing football for Yarra Valley Grammar.

Before that, Harper was at the centre of another terrifying incident in 2017, this time in a Sheffield Shield match.

On that occasion Harper was accidentally struck on the head by Jake Lehmann’s bat while wicketkeeping at the Adelaide Oval.

That serious concussion resulted in a “very lonely” hospital stint for Harper, who later had to learn how to walk again.

“It’s certainly a time of my life I won’t forget … I wouldn’t wish it on anyone,” Harper said in 2020, speaking to former teammate Guy Walker on his podcast series, The Athlete Diaries.

“It was such a fluke that the bat would hit me in the head, it has never happened before. I don’t remember too much about the day. I remember that night, the first time I remember when I was conscious and could actually think where I was, in a hospital at the Royal Adelaide hospital, I wasn’t really sure what happened that day. I was just feeling horrendous.

“The next three weeks were very lonely, I’m not going to shy away from that. They were probably the worst three weeks of my life.

“… I was in a walking frame for seven days. There was something in the back of my brain which sends signals to the legs … they help you walk two steps forward which we take for granted, but at the time these weren’t as clear as they should’ve been which was making the simple task of walking (hard).

“I literally had a physio walking me 10 steps down the hallway helping me walk again. My brain knew how to walk but my legs weren’t coming to terms with that. I was almost embarrassed.”