Mike Powell spent five days in intensive care

"I thought I was going to die because I started bleeding in my lungs," Powell said, speaking exclusively to BBC Radio Wales' The Back Page programme.

"There were three things I thought of that kept me going after that.

"One was that I want to walk out with the Glamorgan team in front of a full house in the new stadium."

Powell, from Abergavenny, was Glamorgan's player of the year last season and is determined to play his part after their Sophia Gardens base in Cardiff finishes its revamp to become a Test-standard ground.

That was the worst pain I've ever had in my life... I woke up in intensive care two days later Glamorgan batsman Mike Powell

"It may be a sporting cliche, but after my friends and family, and my life, cricket is important to me and I enjoy what I do," Powell said.

"I'm so lucky to have played as much as I have and to have done what I've done, and hopefully I'll play a lot longer."

Powell was called up for England's one-day squad in 2004, although he missed out on final selection for the match-day XI.

He has been out of action since the start of June when he suffered problems with his left arm in a County Championship match at Swansea against Essex.

"I came off in the last day at Swansea and my arm was a bit swollen and we went for scans in a Cardiff hospital," Powell said.

"They found a blood clot just under my collarbone, and because of that a vein in my arm closed up as well which took all the blood out of my arm.

"They put me on warfarin and injections to thin my blood out, hoping that would disperse the clot and I could get back to playing cricket pretty soon.

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"Then they found another complication under my rib and decided to whip the rib out, with a specialist doctor at Exeter Hospital.

"All seemed to have gone well but I started bleeding internally and my lung started being pulled away from my rib cage.

"That was the worst pain I've ever had in my life, for about a minute until they gave me morphine, and from then I woke up in intensive care two days later."

During that 48 hours Powell's family and closest friends, including Glamorgan team-mates past and present, were told to expect the worst.

Thankfully Powell pulled through and now faces a difficult road to recovery.

"I get breathless just talking, and I need to get all the 'gunk' out of my lungs and take it from there," he added.

"But when things like this happen it gives you a slightly different outlook on life!"