On the first day of the Adelaide Test, the Australian cricketers were seen sporting black armbands to commemorate their former teammate Phillip Hughes, who lost his life after a ball hit him during a Sheffield Shield match on November 25, 2014. Tom Cooper, who was batting alongside Hughes for South Australia against New South Wales, recounted the tragic moment when Hughes was hit in the neck by a bouncer and collapsed on the Sydney Cricket Ground turf.

A teary-eyed Cooper, now retired from the sport, recounted the horrifying incident, and said players from both teams were immediately concerned by a cut on Hughes’s cheek from falling on the grill of his helmet, before it became clear something much worse was happening.

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“He sort of swung around and at first I thought he looked at me. I was waiting for his cheeky grin but … yeah. I guess at that moment, no-one had any idea of the severity of what everyone had just witnessed,” Cooper said.

“Pretty quickly we knew it was a bit more serious and he wasn’t just going to get up, but we still didn’t know what had actually happened. It felt like hours waiting for the ambulance to come. He was obviously [unconscious] and in hindsight was … gone, I guess,” Cooper said while speaking with ABC Sport during at tea break during the first day’s play at Adelaide.

Two days later, Hughes died, aged 25, on November 27, 2014.

Cooper played along with Hughes for South Australia for more than four years, and was Hughes’s room-mate for most of the time during those four years at Melbourne. He was also a pall-bearer at Hughes’s funeral.

Hughes, who had played in 26 Tests for Australia prior to the incident, was set for a comeback in the Australian team before the tragedy happened, revealed former Aussie coach Darren Lehmann.

Meanwhile, Cooper, who too had suffered a hit at almost the same spot while batting for South Australia in a Shield match in 2009, recounted how commentator Steve O’Keefe was trying to hold Hughes’ head.

“I remember Steve O’Keefe was in there trying to hold his head, but everyone just couldn’t fathom what had just happened. And time was sort of at a standstill,” said Cooper.

Recalling his association with Hughes, Cooper said, “He was everyone’s mate. Everyone thought they were best mates with him, whether they played club cricket, whether they played in the Test side, it didn’t matter who they were, he made you feel like you mattered and that you were his mate.”

“I think the people from around the world that flew in for his funeral goes to show that. Mateship is a word that stands out for me.

“ He was a country boy living his dream. Or maybe not, because I think cows were more important than cricket [to him]. ‘If I keep playing cut shots and cover drives, I can buy more cows’ was a saying he always said.

“It was just, it was a surreal experience. And to think it was 10 years ago, it blows my mind,” said an emotional Cooper.