Stokes, 33, suffered a recurrence of the injury while bowling during England’s third Test against New Zealand in December, having first torn his hamstring while batting for Northern Superchargers against Manchester Originals in the Hundred male in August.
That initial injury kept him out of action for two months, meaning he missed England’s home Test series against Sri Lanka. He later admitted that his race to get fit in time for the team’s winter missions in Pakistan and New Zealand had led him to become “physically exhausted and bankrupt.”
At the time of his diagnosis, he vowed he still had “blood, sweat and tears” to give to the team, ahead of a decisive 12 months that will include five-Test series against India at home and Australia away.
Now, he has posted a photo on Instagram, showing him lying in the back seat of a car after his surgery, with a large brace on his leg and propped up on pillows.
“Bionic Man for a while,” he added in the caption, along with a laughing emoji, in addition to the farewell: “In a moment…”.
Stokes had bowled 36.2 overs before his injury in Hamilton, the most he has bowled in a Test since 40 at Trent Bridge in 2022 (also against New Zealand). On the first day of the Test, his 23 overs were the most he managed in a single day, divided into spells of eight, eight and seven.
Having arrived in England’s home summer following successful knee surgery in October 2023, he bowled 49 overs in three Tests against the West Indies, with five wickets taking him past 200 career dismissals.
“I have to work a lot harder on the physical side of the job to be able to go out and do my job,” he had said before the Hamilton Test, “but I got a good number of overs over the last two.” games and I have more confidence to overcome many spells in a day.
“That’s where I got to before I pulled my hamstring. I bowled well in the summer, had a setback, but now I feel out of it and don’t worry about anything else happening again. A “As you get older, you think about your body a little more, but I work harder because I have to.”
As well as the Champions Trophy, Stokes has been forced to give up a lucrative £800,000 deal with MI Cape Town in the SA20, which starts on Thursday.
