Sean Abbott’s last tweet leaves you with a lump in the throat. Posted three days ago, he said: “Red ball cricket back at the SCG tomorrow!!! Stay Away Rain”. Oh how he must now be wishing it had poured down on Tuesday. Actually, it did. But not in the conventional sense.

The people hurting most from the tragic death of Phillip Hughes will be his family and New South Wales bowler Abbott, the 22-year-old seamer who bowled the bouncer which struck the left-hander a fatal blow on his head/neck.

Despite the calls from many urging him to stay strong and not feel guilty, it will be impossible for him not to have that feeling inside of him. He was just doing his job, yet he’s lost a mate.

Abbott will not be left searching for support. It will come from all angles. His family, Cricket NSW, Cricket Australia, current and former colleagues and Hughes’s family. It has already been reported that Phil’s sister, Megan, consoled him at St Vincent’s hospital in Sydney.

At this stage, it is difficult to imagine how he will come back from this and play cricket again. That won’t matter right now. There is grieving to be done at this stage. But at some point, it will.

What will be going through his mind when he bowls a bouncer again for the first time?

Both players are similar in a sense. Youngsters with a rare talent. Ones with a bright future ahead of them.

You can bet your bottom dollar that if given the chance to have a view, Hughes would want Abbott to continue in the game and have a crack at fulfilling the talent he has. To achieve what Hughes was, himself, striving to achieve.

Hughes may not have been the most technically correct batsman in the world, far from it in fact. Yet, still, he was a heck of a player to watch. He just wanted to whack a cricket ball.

The way he reached his maiden Test hundred against South Africa in his second Test at Durban aged 20 summed him up. When on 99, he slog swept the left-arm spin of Paul Harris over wide long-on for six.

Uncomplicated, effective and entertaining.

Hughes’s death has, and will continue to, hit cricket hard.

For the coming months, long after his funeral you would think, tributes will continue to be paid to Hughes. In the next round of Sheffield Shield matches, at the next international, whenever they may be played, and possibly at the opening match of the Cricket World Cup in February.

His former counties in England, Worcestershire, Middlesex and Hampshire, will no doubt also be paying their respects when the county season starts next April.

So it should be. Hughes will have a lasting effect on the game of cricket, his teams and his team-mates. He will never be forgotten.