"I put my glove to my head and saw a pool of blood.
"As a kid of five I was hit in the face by a swing while playing in the park and had three stitches just underneath the same eye. I was just panicking this time that something serious could have happened, but thank God everything is okay."
Tudor, who ducked into a near 90mph lifting, new-ball delivery from Lee, staggered from the crease and knocked off his protective helmet before being comforted by batting partner Alec Stewart and Australian fielders.
"Luckily I had Alec, one of my best mates in cricket, at the other end and he and Darren Lehmann, who was fielding at short leg, calmed me down," said Tudor, who returned to the team hotel today after X-rays had given him the all-clear.
"It was nasty, but we were able to tell Alex that his eye was okay," said Stewart, Tudor's Surrey team-mate and his former England captain. "He's a tough cookie and he'll come back from this all right."
Tudor - who believed only his helmet saved him from more serious injury - recounted how his first concern was to get a message to his mother, Jennifer, at home.
"As soon as I came off I asked Mark Butcher to phone home," he said. "Mark got through to her straight away." Lee was among the first to check on Tudor's condition once England had been beaten by an innings and 48 runs in the Third Test, and Tudor insisted: "Fast bowlers try to get rid of each other, he's just quicker than I am. It's one of those things."
Tudor had to absorb another blow today when England omitted him from their squad for the first one-day internationals against Australia and Sri Lanka. Steve Harmison, uncapped Worcestershire paceman Kabir Ali and batsman Robert Key are the surprise selections among a squad of 16.
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