Stokes falls foul of four-letter word.. S.C.A.N
England to wrap No.1 all-rounder’s knee injury in cotton wool
BEN STOKES will run the gauntlet of English cricket’s most feared four-letter word before he is unleashed at the Champions Trophy.
Recurring discomfort in his left knee has restricted Stokes, the world’s leading all-rounder, to just five overs in two games.
Medics will pore over the results of a new scan – there you go, the four letters every England player dreads – before trying to nurse Stokes through the mini-World Cup, starting against Bangladesh at The Oval on Thursday.
Past England regimes used to hide behind scans as a cop-out, as if they would change the nature of fractures, smashed ligaments or amputations.
But Stokes is so valuable to England’s hopes of breaking their duck in global 50-over tournaments that this one assumes greater significance than most.
Can Big Ben make it through the competition at full throttle? The message from the England and Wales Cricket Board’s ministry of truth remains optimistic: Yes, he scan.
But after Saturday’s thrilling tworun win at the Ageas Bowl gave Eoin Morgan’s side a 2-0 lead in the Royal London one-day series against South Africa, England will not risk him in today’s dead rubber at Lord’s.
With Chris Woakes (thigh) and Moeen Ali (groin) also ruled out of today’s game as a precaution, England have called up Middlesex pair Steve Finn and Toby Roland-Jones plus Hampshire spinner Liam Dawson.
England insist it is not an injury crisis, but just 72 hours before the Champions Trophy, it is far from ideal.
Stokes, likely to have his s**n tomorrow, remains the big worry. Like all warriors he wants to play – but the Durham slugger needs to be saved from his own knee-jerk reactions.
He said: “I’ve had it for two or three years now, on and off. It’s all about managing it. It is just in my delivery stride when I’m bowling. That’s the only time I feel it – a sensation running up the side of my knee.
“Batting and running around the field, everything is fine. We are managing it as well as we can between the doctors, physios and myself.
“It’s an injury I’ve had before and sometimes it will just go away. I have good days and bad days – I could wake up tomorrow and it could be completely gone, but I will just have to monitor it over the next few days.
“It comes and goes – on some days I don’t know whether it’s going to be good or not. We only really find out when I start bowling.
“I’m going to get a few more scans, just to get an idea what is happening in there, then the medical staff and conditioning coaches will have an idea of how to counteract it.”
Stokes is in good form with the bat after his 101 from 79 balls at Southampton – even if he was dropped off the first two deliveries before thrashing his second oneday century for England.
He laughed: “It was a shaky start, wasn’t it? For the first 20 balls or so I found it tough.
“I got through the hard bit and just made sure I was ticking along nicely. But hey-ho, the first two balls were lucky, yeah.”