Stokes left the field clutching the same left hamstring he tore badly in August, physically unable to complete his over on the third afternoon of the final Test against New Zealand. With the series already secured, England’s most pressing concerns were for their captain rather than the parlous state of a one-sided game at Seddon Park, where New Zealand set an astronomical target of 658 before sniping both openers to leave their opponents reeling at 18 for two. Stokes prides himself on giving everything he can for the team, with both bat and ball as well as in the field.
But the long, hard seasons of wear and tear may be catching up with the 33-year-old quicker than he would like. The sight of Stokes hobbling out of the ground with a compression bandage on his leg was a gut wrenching image at the end of a trip where he seemed to banish 18 months of fitness troubles and finally looked ready to resume duties as his team’s do-it-yourself action hero. He was into his 67th over of the series – almost 37 of those in this match – when he felt his muscle twinge and exited the stage with head in hands.
His day was over immediately, with a scan booked to assess the full extent of the damage, but in the longer term both he and England may now have to consider whether his body is still capable of everything he wants from it. “We didn’t see it coming,” admitted assistant coach Marcus Trescothick. “You don’t have any signs for these sort of things, generally they just happ.
