England Test captain Ben Stokes confirms surgery after hamstring injury in New Zealand - 'Bionic man for a while'
Published 07/01/2025 at 19:56 GMT
Ben Stokes has described himself as a "bionic man" after undergoing hamstring surgery. The England all-rounder is set to miss the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy after picking up the muscle injury during the tour of New Zealand in December. He has now gone under the knife though, as he attempts to beat the clock and regain fitness for the four-day Test against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge in May.
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Video credit: TNT Sports
England captain Ben Stokes has had surgery on the hamstring he injured in New Zealand.
The all-rounder picked up the problem when bowling in the third and final Test in Hamilton.
The 33-year-old had got through 36.2 overs over the course of the match, before pulling up in The Black Caps' second innings.
The tourists subsequently fell to a chastening 423-run defeat, but still won the series 2-1.
And less than a month after landing back in the UK, Stokes has now gone under the knife.
"Bionic man for a while," he wrote on Instagram, before adding: "Surgery âś“. In a bit..."
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The message was accompanied by a photo of Stokes with his leg in a brace, raised across the back seat of a car.
This is the second serious hamstring injury that the Test captain has suffered in the past six months.
He previously aggravated the problem representing the Northern Superchargers in The Hundred last August.
As such, he was missing for England's 2-1 series win over Sri Lanka in the summer of 2024.
Ollie Pope took the reins in his absence, and the Surrey batter also stood in as skipper for the first Test against Pakistan in October.
Stokes returned for the second and third matches, steadily upping his bowling loads over the course of the tour.
But, after getting through dozens of overs in New Zealand, he tore his left hamstring for the second time in the calendar year.
The ECB had already confirmed the issue would rule him out for around three months.
That means he will miss the Champions Trophy, a 50-over tournament which gets underway in Pakistan and the UAE next month.
TNT Sports and discovery+ will show England's white ball tour of India which commences on January 22, matches Stokes will also miss.
However, England's red ball team are not back in action until May, when they take on Zimbabwe in a four-day Test at Trent Bridge.
That fixture serves as an appetiser for a hotly anticipated five-match series against India, which gets underway at Headingley on June 20.
All being well, Stokes, who has opted out of the 2025 Indian Premier League, should be available for those six matches.
And he should then lead his team to Australia, where they will attempt to reclaim the Ashes for the first time since 2015, although they have not won a Test Down Under since lifting the urn in 2010/11.
Watch the entire Women's Ashes series live on TNT Sports and discovery+.
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