Wendell Smith has been hospitalised after two blood clots were discovered on his lung.

The Western Stars coach began feeling unwell on the weekend and went to the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital on Monday.

Tests later revealed the clots on his right lung.

“I was having chest pains on Saturday and thought it was something that would come and go,” said Smith, who expected to remain in hospital until the weekend.

“When I had some more discomfort on Sunday night and decided to go to the hospital first thing Monday ... good thing I did!

“They checked my heart and gave me a CT scan and ran iodine in my body and checked for clots and sure enough the doctor said I had two clots on the right side of my lung.

“I was down here in the emergency room from 8.30am when they ran blood tests and the scan.”

Smith expects to be discharged by the weekend, but has already been advised to get plenty of rest, which means no coaching for the next few weeks.

“I have to rest for another week and have to keep still,” he said.

“Even then I’ll have to be careful how much activity I do for a while. I also have to be careful about being struck.”

Lionel Cann, the former Bermuda batsman, suffered a similar illness last summer when a clot was found on his lung.

He, too, had to limit his activity while on blood thinners and had to rule himself out of contention for Cup Match.

“It’s a wake-up call to take better care of my health,” said Smith, the former St George’s Cup Match captain who is the first batsman to score 1,000 runs in the annual classic.

“Funny thing is the first night I was down here I went to sleep about 11.30pm and woke up about 3am, took out my book and was doing all this cricket stuff, going over every one of my bowlers and the field placings.

“There were some things the players really needed help with, field placings, running between the wickets and batting spin. Then I thought what I should be doing is thinking about what I should or shouldn’t be eating rather than worrying about cricket.”

Stars, who were promoted to the Premier Division last season, will not have another game until May 8 when they begin their league campaign.

Justin Robinson, who has been appointed Stars captain for 50-over matches, will take over the coaching in Smith’s absence.

He expects to be back the week after the Belco Cup which is scheduled for the weekend of May 14, 15.

“We play [Willow Cuts] next Sunday but I’ll let him take over for that,” Smith said.

“Then we’re off for the weekend of the Belco Cup so that gives me plenty of time to rest. I have to do what the doctors say, they don’t want you moving around much at all in the first couple of weeks.

“Willis Dill, [the Stars president] came down to see me today and we chatted and he said not to worry about racing back, to take care of myself.

“It’s going to be a long season, we’ll play everybody three times.”

Dill said: “Everybody at the club is wishing him well, we don’t want him to rush back because his health is more important than cricket, even though cricket is his life.

“There’s no rush, the guys are still going to play cricket and from what I’ve seen they are doing what they have to do to fill the void.”

Smith, the deputy principal at West Pembroke Primary, will also miss his school’s matches in the Super Eight tournament next Wednesday and Thursday.

“I was going to school early every morning, about 7.45am because the kids like to play cricket, girls and boys, before school starts and I was making sure they had the stumps,” he said.

“Next week there is the Super Eight tournament but I won’t be there for that. I coached the girls team last year and they won the tournament.

“I’ll miss that, not being there for the tournament, but they’ll be OK.”

He is also confident the Stars team will be fine this season, too, after two close defeats in the Twenty20 tournament.

“Last year I coached and ‘captained’ from the side a lot but Sunday and last weekend I wasn’t shouting out instructions, just letting the guys do what they thought they should do and realise that they’ll learn more if we lost and made mistakes and could reflect upon it,” he said.

“I have to do what the doctor says and keep still, but the type of person I am I can’t keep still while coaching.”