Ben Stokes has said he felt like he had been shot in the leg when sustaining the injury that has led to his missing the ongoing third Test with Pakistan at Edgbaston and now ruled him out of the fourth and final match at the Kia Oval next week.
The all-rounder sustained a grade-two tear to his right calf muscle at the end of the 330-run win at Old Trafford last week in what was his first game back for England since an operation to repair damaged cartilage in his left knee at the end of May.
This latest setback was feared to be season-ending at the time but while the 25-year-old will not play Test cricket again this summer, he remains optimistic of a return for the five-match one-day series that gets under way in Southampton on 24 August.
Describing the moment he pulled up lame, when bowling in Pakistan’s second innings at Old Trafford, Stokes told BBC Test Match Special: “It felt like a sniper from the top of the tower had shot my calf. There was a possibility of being fit for the Oval Test but rather than risk more damage we decided to take it easy and try and get ready for the start of the one-day series.”
While Stokes continues his rehabilitation, having been in the England camp during the build-up to the third Test, his county team-mate Mark Wood has been named in Durham’s squad for their championship fixture away against Somerset that starts on Thursday.
Wood, the fast bowler who won eight Test caps last year and claimed the wicket that saw the Ashes regained at Trent Bridge, will be bowling in first-class cricket for the first time since the series with Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates last October, having undergone two ankle operations over the winter.
The 26-year-old has been playing limited‑overs cricket for both Durham and the England Lions since the start of last month, taking 12 wickets in six matches, but will now step up his workload with a view to a possible international comeback this summer.
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