England’s Ben Stokes stated the knee challenge that hampered him within the Ashes opener was a flare-up of an older damage and the all-rounder is assured he can handle it going into the second match in Adelaide this week.
Stokes scored 5 and 14 within the nine-wicket defeat by Australia in Brisbane and bowled solely 12 wicketless overs after jarring his knee.
It was his first aggressive match since July after a psychological well being break and rehabilitation following surgical procedure on a damaged 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 something by any means besides take a catch and bowl a couple of no balls so the one optimistic is I most likely can’t get a lot worse.
“People can have seen me rubbing my knee sometimes once I was within the discipline, however relaxation assured I’m high-quality. It’s an previous damage that flares up each every so often, however I understand how to handle it.
“It just gets a little bit uncomfortable … in and around my cartilage, but it just looks worse than it is by the way I try and get off it as soon as I can.”
England skipper Joe Root has backed Stokes to contribute extra within the the rest of the sequence and was hopeful the difficulty wouldn’t prohibit him.
“Obviously, he had a bit of a jarring of his knee … so hopefully it’s just something he’s shaken off now and you can see him back at full intensity and it gives us all options on the table,” Root stated.
The second check within the five-match sequence begins on Thursday.
