Steve Smith was desperate to get back after being taken off by the Australian medical staff on receiving a painful blow to the softer side of his neck off a very quick bouncer from England's Jofra Archer, said head coach Justin Langer about the incident from Day 4 of the ongoing second Ashes Test at Lord's. 

Smith immediately fell to the ground and was deemed retired hurt but he came back at the fall of the next wicket after 40 minutes before being adjudged LBW on 92. He didn't seem stable enough to carry on. 

"Because he was hit in the neck and not in the helmet or in the head maybe that had a bit of an impact, it was like getting a soft tissue injury. He got hit on the arm as well, and then hit on the neck," Langer told reporters on Saturday (August 18) after the day's play. 

"But as soon as he got up in the medical room, it was like ‘nah I’m going okay’, then he had the concussion testing and the doctor came through and said ‘he’s passed all that and he’s pretty good’. By the time he walked back in the dressing room he just couldn’t wait to get back out there again."

"I was saying ‘mate are you sure you’re okay’, these are like my sons right, so you’re never going to put them in harm’s way, even though you’re always in harm’s way with Test cricket," he added. 

"'Mate, I’ve got to get out there, I can’t get on the honour board unless I’m out batting’. That’s what he says, that’s what he thinks. He was determined."

Langer himself reckons there won't be any long-term implication of the blow to Smith's confidence against pacers, though he would definitely like to see him wear more of protection by possibly attaching a neck guard to his usual helmet at the crease. 

"All he was worried about was that he wasn’t going to be able to play his forward defence because it was hurting with his top hand grip," he further informed of the backroom talk.

"We can look into it, but honestly he wouldn’t have gone out there unless we thought (he was okay). We asked him over and over. I asked him privately, I asked him behind closed doors two or three times, I asked him in front of the group,... he just goes ‘all good, all good coach, I’m ready to go, I’m ready to go’."

"What else do you do? The medicos cleared him, he wanted to get out there, we were looking after him, and he said ‘honestly I’m ready to go, my arm’s a bit sore’. That’s why he went out there," Langer concluded.

(Inputs from HT)