ABC, Monday: Steve Smith says he was “a little bit anxious” after the blow to the helmet, in the first Test against South Africa. It is not a newsroom diagnosis. It is his mouth. Anrich Nortje, a bouncer, Kingsmead, Durban. He kept batting. Then he stayed off. He passed delayed-concussion checks. He came back.

Reuters, via cricket.com.au / AAP: Sunday, before the second Test, St George’s Park, rain delay. “It was a decent knock. The rest of that day I wasn’t travelling too well. I think it was more to do with anxiety, hoping not to feel what I felt in the past, waking up the next morning.” He woke up well. The tests, passed. Recovery, he says, pretty quickly. That is his mouth, on television. It is not a medical file.

On the field, Monday: physio, doctor, helmet changed, as the rule requires. 27 runs. Australia declared. Smith did not take the field when South Africa’s second innings began. Protocols. Tuesday, day five, he returned. A 214-run win. 1–0 in a three-match series. 37 years old. 28 runs short of 11,000 in Tests. Scorebook figures, not a hospital chart.

He has been hit before. 2019, Lord’s, Jofra Archer, the Ashes: the first player replaced in a Test after concussion substitutes came in. 2020, practice in England. Still 2020, Sydney, vertigo before an ODI against India. Sri Lanka 2022. The World Cup in India. Adelaide, last December, a vestibular issue, out 20 minutes before the toss. The list is from Reuters. It is not a medical verdict. It is a public history.

Anxiety, in his telling, was the biggest hurdle. We do not write that he has a concussion now. The tests, passed. Ready, he says, for the second Test. The photograph: Kingsmead, 9 April 2009. Not Monday’s helmet. Not St George’s Park.

Image: Marc Forrest, Kingsmead, 9 April 2009, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. Not October’s Test.

Sources consulted: Steve Smith reveals anxiety over concussion after head knock during first Test — ABC News; 'Anxiety' the biggest hurdle after head blow: Smith — cricket.com.au / AAP.