Ben Stokes will not feature for Durham until early May after having a small plate inserted to repair the cheekbone he broke in a net session during February. The England Test captain had hoped to line up in next week’s County Championship opener against Kent at Canterbury, but head coach Ryan Campbell confirmed that a return is more likely in the fifth round, at Worcestershire from 8-11 May.
Stokes was struck flush in the face by a firmly-driven ball from a Durham academy batter while helping out at the Riverside. He later travelled to Abu Dhabi as part of the England Lions back-room staff yet has not been cleared for competitive cricket.
“[The incident] could have been horrific,” Campbell said at the club’s pre-season media day. “So, so much worse than what you think. A couple of centimetres a different way it hits him in the eye and it could have been different.
The ball was hit so hard. We are just lucky he got away with it.”
The all-rounder has not played since tweaking a groin in the fifth Ashes Test at the SCG in January. If rehabilitation goes smoothly, he might squeeze in only two Championship fixtures – Worcestershire away, then Kent at Chester-le-Street – before England host New Zealand in a three-Test series starting at Lord’s on 4 June.
That limited game-time is not ideal, especially after England’s 4-1 defeat in Australia, yet the ECB reiterated this week that Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum remain their preferred leadership team. Campbell believes time on the sidelines has merely sharpened his captain’s focus.
“He has been training so hard to be ready,” Campbell said. “He has a lot to prove. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know the Ashes didn’t go so well and he is a proud man who wants England to be the best team in the world.”
Campbell added: “He, as a professional, is working at getting right and ready to go.”
Durham’s squad have treated the absence as business as usual. Seam options have been rotated in practice, and Ollie Robinson – the county’s, not England’s, version – is likely to share new-ball duties with Matthew Potts in early April. Stokes, once available, will bring obvious balance: a middle-order presence and a fourth seamer who can rough batsmen up with short stuff, a role he relishes.
For now, though, the immediate target is simple: protect the cheekbone, tick off the fitness markers, and walk back in when the calendar flips to May.
