Ben Stokes has expressed his gratitude to be alive after suffering a serious facial injury in February. Stokes, who took on the role of coaching academy players in his county town of Durham, met with an accident that led him to undergoing surgery for a fractured cheekbone along with multiple facial injuries. He is currently in recovery.
Stokes is expected to take part in several County Championship matches next month in preparation for the three-Test series against New Zealand in June. In an internal interview with the ECBStokes noted that the situation could have been much worse and acknowledged his luck in surviving the incident.
“Pretty ugly but strangely probably the best outcome of a bad situation to be honest,” Stokes said.
“I hit one right in the face. Just a few inches either way, I might not be doing this interview if I hadn’t turned my head.”
“Having said all that, even though I had major facial surgery to fix it — it was a bit of a mess (cheekbone) here — I got pretty lucky. I’m pretty grateful for that.”
‘THANKS, STILL HERE’
Stokes said the injury has delayed his plans for about a month, but he is delighted to have the opportunity to play a few county games before the start of the Test season.
“Obviously it all came back about a month ago when I got back to where I wanted to play at the start of the season for Durham. I just had to kind of quickly go back to the drawing board and put a plan together to be ready to play a few games for Durham before the test summer starts,” Stokes said.
However, Stokes reiterated that the injury was a harrowing experience and potentially life-changing.
“I’m at the end of it all now, but it was a pretty scary situation. Luckily, I’m still here and everything’s fine,” Stokes said.
The England Test captain is struggling to recover from a tough Ashes series during which his leadership came under scrutiny.
– The end
Published on:
15 Apr 2026 18:31 IST
