‘No training until I get these scans,’ reveals Ben Stokes following knee concerns

England’s Test vice-captain Ben Stokes revealed that he is not willing to make any plans for the summer until he has undergone a few scans to assess the extent of a knee concern. The English all-rounder struggled with the issue during England's recently concluded series in West Indies, where they lost 1-0.

The County Championship 2022/23 is set to start on Thursday (April 7), while England's first Test match of the summer against New Zealand is scheduled for early June.

“At the moment, no training until I get these scans,” said Stokes while speaking on the Round the Wicket podcast. “Then we find out what is going on, then hopefully can make a plan from there on.”

England had a torrid winter, that included a 4-0 Ashes defeat by Australia, and a 1-0 defeat by West Indies. With that, they have lost four successive Test series and extended their winless run to nine games. 

To express his thoughts on the results, Stokes insisted there were some positives to take from their tour in the Caribbean, but admitted the players may have been guilty of ‘playing the situation overplaying the man.’

“I said in the changing room after the last game, unfortunately, all that hard work we put in the first two games is going to be forgotten about because of how this last game has gone, and that's just how sport goes,” Stokes added.

“It's what people focus on, but I think what we need to do is to just play the man a bit more rather than the situation.

“I think that is something that this whole group can take forward - break it down and just go 'right, it's me against you rather than me against the whole situation of this whole game,” he signed off.