YEOVAL-BORN Victoria quick Chris Tremain says he can't imagine how New South Wales paceman Sean Abbott feels following the sickening injury to South Australian opening batsman Phil Hughes.
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Abbott sent down the bouncer that careered into the side of Hughes' head during the current round of Sheffield Shield action at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Hughes was taken to the nearby St Vincent's Hospital on Tuesday afternoon in a critical condition, and remains that way.
Cricket Australia has offered Abbott, 22, counselling following the "freak accident", one Tremain experienced first hand when one of his bouncers snuck under the guard of NSW batsman Ben Rohrer earlier in November, leaving the Blues' right-hander concussed at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Fortunately, Rohrer's injuries were not as severe as those Hughes is currently battling, but Tremain said watching the incident again made him feel a little ill on Tuesday afternoon.
"A lot of the boys are quite close with 'Hughesy' and when we found out (on Tuesday), it hit us pretty hard. It took a bit to sink in. I can't imagine what Sean is feeling either," Tremain said.
The former Orange District Cricket Association player of the year added Rohrer was still battling the after effects of his hit to the head.
"I found out yesterday that Ben hasn't been playing for three weeks," Tremain said.
"I rang him up to talk to him about it and he said he was fine, but Benny was always going to say that.
"Where he was hit was fairly similar to where Phil was hit."
Tremain, though, backed the use of the bouncer, a tactic used as an effective means of dismissal by all fast bowlers.
He stressed, however, it was never the intention of any fast bowler to physically harm the batsman facing.
"Even after we heard about 'Hughesy' we were still bowling around the wicket and short yesterday, not to hurt the batsman, but because it's a way of getting them out," Tremain said, finding out the news about Hughes during the tea break of his side's clash with Western Australia at the MCG.
"I can tell you now Sean wouldn't have been bowling short to hurt Phil, just like I wasn't bowling short to hurt Benny... it's just a freak accident."
Cricket Australia has abandoned the current round of Sheffield Shield cricket, a move Tremain says is "out of respect for Hughesy".
And although of the belief there's not a dire need to change the regulations surrounding the use of helmets, he implored any junior cricketer to don any piece of safety equipment that allows confidence at the crease.