Woakes doubtful for first India Test due to knee injury
Stokes also out for rest of ODIS with Australia Shows the risk of going into Test series after IPL
Chris Woakes is in a fight to be fit for the first Test against India due to a chronic knee injury which shows the risk modern players run by going from the Indian Premier League straight into a Test series.
Woakes suffered a 15centimetre tear in his right thigh during the Headingley Test against Pakistan last month, which the England medical staff have revealed was partly linked to chronic tendinitis in his right knee, a condition that he has managed for the past eight years.
Woakes had a cortisone injection in his right knee and England have ruled him out until at least the one-day series against India in the middle of next month.
It is the second summer in succession that Woakes has suffered an injury that has put him out for a significant length of time, and it raises the question of how long the Warwickshire all-rounder can go on juggling playing all three formats for England and taking part in the IPL.
It is no surprise that England’s two IPL all-rounders both sustained injuries in the Pakistan series, with Ben Stokes’s hamstring strain putting him out of the one-dayers against Australia.
Both went into the series against Pakistan having played nothing but Twenty20 cricket. In Woakes’s case, he was in and out of the Royal Challengers Bangalore side, spending plenty of time on the sidelines rather than playing.
“The quad felt tight at Headingley and then during the final spell I bowled it got worse,” Woakes said yesterday. “The scans showed it was a big tear and, because I had this ongoing knee problem, I had not been able to strengthen the leg as much as I would like to, so it buckled under the pressure of playing a Test match.”
Woakes will have a decision to make over playing in the IPL next year. If he is not retained by his franchise, the 29-year-old will have to decide whether to enter the auction. The England players will not be as attractive next year, with the England and Wales Cricket Board cutting short their IPL time to prepare for the World Cup, which England are hosting next summer, so the financial inducement to risk injury will not be the same.
“The IPL is a great thing,” Woakes said. “You can improve yourself at the same time as earning a hell of a lot of money but, next year, it will be a bit tricky.
“If I don’t get retained I have to think if it is worth going into the auction with such an important summer ahead. I will know more about that next year. For a home World Cup you want to be in tip-top condition with the right cricket under your belt.
“For me the best way is to play cricket and maintain my stuff in the gym. It means not spiking, which is playing a block of T20 cricket and then a Test match. I need to make sure I have the workloads under my belt to do that.”
Chris Woakes was supporting children’s charity Chance to Shine during Yorkshire Tea National Cricket Week. Donations will be doubled by the charity’s patron Adrian Beecroft this summer. Donate at chancetoshine.org /donate