England’s Ben Stokes not worried about knee issue

MELBOURNE, December 14

England’s Ben Stokes said the knee issue that hampered him in the Ashes opener was a flare-up of an older injury and the all-rounder is confident he can manage it going into the second match in Adelaide this week.

Stokes scored five and 14 in the nine-wicket defeat to Australia in Brisbane and bowled only 12 wicketless overs after jarring his knee.

It was his first competitive match since July after a mental health break and rehabilitation following surgery on a broken finger. “Having a long break is going to show itself, but there are no excuses,” Stokes wrote in his column for The Mirror. “I didn’t do anything whatsoever except take a catch and bowl a few no-balls so the one positive is I probably can’t get much worse. People will have seen me rubbing my knee from time to time when I was in the field, but rest assured I’m fine. It’s an old injury that flares up every now and again,” he added.

England skipper Joe Root has backed Stokes to contribute more in the remainder of the series. “Obviously, he had a bit of a jarring of his knee…hopefully you can see him back at full intensity,” Root said. — Reuters