Fears over bowler Sean Abbott's mental state

Hughes’ sister supporting devastated player whose bouncer killed her brother.

As family, friends and cricket legends gathered at a Sydney hospital to say goodbye to Phillip Hughes, the 25-year-old's sister, Megan, sat with devastated cricketer Sean Abbott to offer him support.

Australian captain Michael Clarke also spent time with the distraught bowler whose ball felled Hughes, as the international cricketing community expressed support and solidarity with Abbott amid growing concern for his emotional well-being.

Cricket Australia's team doctor, Peter Brukner, said Abbott had been receiving a lot of support from teammates and from Cricket NSW.

"When he came to the hospital yesterday, Michael Clarke came down and spent a significant amount of time with him. Phillip's sister, Megan, also came and spent significant time with Sean," Dr Brukner said.

"Obviously what Sean has gone through is an incredibly traumatic experience, as it has been for everyone present on the field that day."

The young player had been excited to return to long-form cricket when he bowled the short delivery that struck Hughes, causing the injury that would claim his life.

Others in the cricketing community have spoken about their fear of the "freak" accident impacting upon Abbott's cricketing career, as well as his emotional well-being.

Former test quick bowler Stuart Clark said that Abbott had just been "doing his job", which was to "intimidate" the batsman, reported the Herald Sun.

"I've heard at different stages that [Abbott] is struggling a little bit with it all," Clark told Fox Sports News.

Hughes' parents Greg and Virginia and his sister Megan leave Cricket NSW offices. Photo / AAP

"[But] he's out there to get Phil Hughes out. It's a competitive sport. It's professional sport and I really feel for Sean Abbott at the moment, he said.

"You just worry that this could jeopardise Abbott and his cricket career and we don't want that."

On Wednesday, Abbott returned to the SCG, where the accident occurred, for a team counselling session and was supported by teammates and team officials. Ian Chatman, who managed Abbott's junior team for about eight years and witnessed his first century, told Daily Mail Australia he was a grounded young man who was "loved by everyone, and still is".

"He was really loved by his team-mates, and he cared about them as well," said Mr Chatman, who said Abbott would be "devastated" by Tuesday's events.

"He was always making sure that you know, if someone dropped a catch, he'd be over there patting them on the back saying, 'Don't worry about it, it's okay'."

Meanwhile former New Zealand coach and captain John Wright has paid tribute to Hughes, a player he helped coach briefly eight years ago, and who again came under his watch in the Indian Premier League in 2013.

"I met him when I was doing some coaching at the Australian academy when he was 17, he was the youngest in the group," Wright said.

"I've followed his career since. He joined me at Mumbai and was a pleasure to work with. He was a great young man. It is very, very sad.

"As a coach you meet some wonderful young cricketers and he was one of the best. That goes for beyond cricket.

"It was just such a freaky shot. No one expects that to happen."

On social media, the hashtag #putoutyourbats allowed users, including the Black Caps, to share their tributes to the player.

Twitter users shared photos of cricket bats using the hashtag, while on Google Australia's homepage a simple tribute to Hughes showed a cricket bat leaning against a white background, with the caption "Phillip Hughes, 1988-2014".

Last night on Instagram, posts using the hashtag had topped 12,000.

The mood seemed to affect the second day of New Zealand's test match against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates last night. Wickets were greeted without celebration and the team all shook hands with Hafeez when he missed his double century.