England Test captain Ben Stokes is lucky to be alive after a freak accident. Stokes was hit on the face by a cricket ball while coaching his county team, Durham’s academy players, in February. Stokes suffered a broken cheekbone and other facial injuries and underwent an operation. Stokes recalled the scary incident and said that the injury could have been worse if the ball had hit a couple of inches here and there. The England all-rounder is relieved after surviving the nasty blow.
“I copped one straight in the face. Pretty nasty but, funnily, probably the best result of a bad situation, to be honest,” Stokes said in an interview posted by England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).
“Just a couple of inches one way or the other, I might not be here doing this interview if I didn’t turn my head round. All things considered, although I had pretty major facial surgery to sort it out, it was a bit of a mess…I’ve got out quite lucky. So pretty thankful for that. Obviously, it set everything back about a month, five weeks, with getting back to where I wanted to be to play at the start of the season for Durham. I just had to quickly go back to the drawing board and put a plan together to get me ready to play a couple of games for Durham before the Test summer starts. But it was a pretty scary situation,” he added.
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Ben Stokes Justifies Ashes Criticism
Stokes-led England suffered a 4-1 drubbing in Australia, raising doubts on Stokes’ future as captain, but the southpaw is ready to lead England in the first Test against England from June 4. Reacting to the criticism that followed the Ashes defeat, and said that it was probably justified how England played in Australia.
💬 "We’ve got ourselves to blame… We’re a much better team than that." 🎙️ @BenStokes38 pic.twitter.com/8a1caaOc4e
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) April 14, 2026
“I think that a lot of it was warranted,” he said. “A lot of it was put forward in a way that was a bit extreme but when you look at it deep, deep, deep, you agree with some of it. I also think that some of it was a bit harsh and a bit unnecessary and it was like the knives are out. You’ve got to take it because performing like we did in Australia is disappointing to a lot of people, and I feel like a word like ‘unacceptable’ for us to perform that way would be close because we’re a much Overall, it was pretty tough and a lot of it we’ve got to take blame as players and as an organization.”
