Will Pucovski's rollercoaster cricket career begins its next circuit when he returns to playing with his grade club Melbourne.
The Australian opener has been named for a two-day Victoria Premier Cricket match against Essendon at the Albert Ground, starting on Saturday.
It will be his first game at any level since taking an indefinite break on October 27.
The 24-year-old's stop-start career has been marred by a series of concussions and other injuries.
Pucovski had only just returned at the start of this season after suffering from the 11th concussion of his short career.
His return initially came as part of a cricket academy tour of India in August, before he scored a big century for Victoria's second XI in September.
The right-hander made scores of 0, nine and 37 in two Sheffield Shield games for Victoria.
Widely regarded as one of the country's best rising cricket talents, Pucovski has played one Test - against India in January 2021.
He initially took personal leave in October 2018 after announcing himself as a star-in-the-making with a double-century against WA for Victoria a week earlier.
The young prodigy was expected to be named in Australia's squad at the start of the 2019-20 summer, before withdrawing from contention.
He has since worked closely with mind coach Emma Murray and repeatedly stated the fire still burns in him to add to his sole appearance for Australia.
"You are going to fail a lot in cricket, that happens," Pucovski said in an interview about his work with Murray in 2019.
"But if I am consistent in how I go about it I am giving myself the best chance to succeed.
"It's probably just freed me up a bit. I'm not going to base if I failed or succeeded on a personal level just on my result, but how I went about it."
Injuries have not helped his cause.
His international debut was expected to come in late 2020 against India, but Pucovski suffered an ugly concussion in a warm-up match at Drummoyne Oval.
When his did finally take his international bow later that summer he injured his shoulder diving and was ruled out of the remainder of the season.
Victoria's next Shield match is against Queensland at the MCG on February 9.
