With England set for group-stage elimination at the Cricket World Cup, Ben Stokes is to have knee surgery in a bid to be back fit in time for January's Test tour of India; watch England vs Australia on Saturday live on Sky Sports Cricket from 8am (first ball at 8.30am)
Saturday 4 November 2023 09:57, UK
England's Ben Stokes is set to have surgery at the end of the World Cup as he attempts to conquer his long-term left knee injury.
The Test captain has been struggling with the problem for at least 18 months and has had to play as a specialist batter recently, with his body unable to cope with the rigours of bowling.
Stokes suggested he was considering an operation after this summer's Ashes series, but instead chose to come out of ODI retirement and take part in England's title defence in India.
With England on the way out at the end of the group stage, he is likely to go under the knife before the end of the month and will hope to be ready to lead his side's Test tour of India in January.
The first Test in Hyderabad starts on January 25, with the team expected to fly out to the United Arab Emirates for a warm-up camp two weeks earlier.
Stokes, speaking on the eve of his side's clash with Ashes rivals Australia in Ahmedabad, said: "I am having surgery after the World Cup. I will be fine for the Test series in India, hopefully."
Former England white-ball captain Eoin Morgan told Sky Sports: "It's clearly a decision that he has reflected on for a long time.
"His knee has been nowhere near its best and I'm pretty sure it's the reason he hasn't been able to bowl as much as he would have liked for a long period of time.
"This now will allow him a period of time and hopefully he'll rehabilitate as well as he can and be fit to come here [India] in January.
"Don't forget, he plays a huge part in leading that Test team. And leadership is a very important component... so he wants to be here for that Test match series."
England have had a World Cup campaign to forget in India, with the defending champions sitting bottom of the standings with only one win in six games.
They also have the worst net run-rate for the tournament, making qualification for the semi-finals next to impossible unless they win the rest of their games convincingly and hope other results go their way.
"We've had a disastrous World Cup and there's no point sugar-coating that because it's the truth," Stokes said. "But we know these last three games, for us, we've got a lot to play for.
"I think the biggest thing that we've got to play for is obviously the pride of what it is to put the Three Lions on your chest, walking out on to the field every time is a very special occasion and something that we value very highly."
When asked why England had underperformed at the tournament, Stokes said they had failed to take control of games but apart from that the team could not quite put a finger on what went wrong.
"The problem is that we've been c**p," he added. "Every opportunity that we've had in front of us where we feel like we can take control of the game, the opposition's managed to get it back towards them.
"We've been nowhere near good enough to be able to compete in a World Cup, which has been incredibly disappointing because we know we're so, so much better than what we've shown out here.
"If we knew what had gone wrong, we would have been able to fix it. But unfortunately, we don't. It's one of those tournaments where it's just been a disaster."
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