"We had planned for him to return to LV= Insurance County Championship cricket in early May and, while he is feeling tender in the knee, that plan remains the same following the scan"; the ECB has provided an update on Ben Stokes
Friday 8 April 2022 15:09, UK
Ben Stokes is set to return to action for Durham in the County Championship next month after a scan did not reveal any fresh damage in his left knee.
The England vice-captain suffered knee problems during the tour of the West Indies, as Joe Root's side slumped to a Test series defeat after a disappointing loss in Grenada.
But Stokes is still on schedule to feature for his county in May after checks confirmed he had not sustained a new injury.
A statement from the ECB read: "Ben had a scan on his left knee which didn't reveal anything new.
"We had planned for him to return to LV= Insurance County Championship cricket in early May and, while he is feeling tender in the knee, that plan remains the same following the scan.
"We'll continue to manage him in conjunction with Durham."
The 30-year-old all-rounder will test his fitness ahead of another busy summer international schedule, starting against New Zealand in June.
England slumped to a 10-wicket defeat against the West Indies in the deciding third Test last month, with Stokes admitting the team needed to cope better with a high-pressure period of the match.
"I said in the changing room after the last game, unfortunately all that hard work we put in the first two games is going to be forgotten about because of how this last game has gone, and that's just how sport goes," Stokes said on 4C's Round the Wicket podcast.
"It's what people focus on, but I think what we just need to do is to obviously just play the man a bit more rather than the situation.
"It's something we have all been guilty of even with the ball and with the bat - sometimes when we get into quite crunch situations, we can be a bit guilty of playing the situation over playing the man.
"I think that is something that this whole group can take forward, just really break it down a lot simpler and just go 'right, it's me against you' rather than me against the whole situation of this whole game."
