LONDON: England Test captain Ben Stokes has suffered a serious facial injury after being hit by a cricket ball.
The 34-year-old all-rounder posted a picture on Instagram showing his right eye badly swollen and bruised, a graze on his cheek and lip and a bandage stuffed into his nose.
“You should see the state of the cricket ball,” read Stokes’ caption of the picture, along with a smiley face emoji.
Stokes is back in England after a dismal Ashes tour which ended with a 4-1 loss to Australia last month.
Although Stokes has made it clear he wants to continue to captain the red ball, his position remains uncertain amid an England and Wales Cricket Board review.
England coach Brendon McCullum has described some of the subsequent fallout from the Ashes as “out of order”.
Stokes is no longer a member of England’s white-ball set-up and will not feature in the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka starting this weekend.
He could next play for Durham in the early rounds of the County Championship before England begin their home Test season against New Zealand at Lord’s on June 4 – Stokes’ 35th birthday.
Stokes is currently recovering from an adductor injury sustained during the fifth Ashes Test in Sydney in January.
The injury prevented him from bowling in Australia’s second innings and ended a frustrating tour for the England skipper, who bowled well throughout the series but struggled with the bat.
Stokes’ groin problem is the latest of several injuries to blight his career.
In 2024, he tore his hamstring twice and he finished last season’s home series against India on the sidelines with a shoulder problem, having undergone surgery at the end of 2023 to deal with knee problems.
Stokes is contracted to England until the end of the 2027 domestic summer and can now avoid taking part in next month’s auction for the Hundred, freeing him to focus on the Test team.
