Mark Wood has never been one for big pronouncements and, true to form, the fast bowler says he is “quietly confident” his repaired right knee will hold up for the first Ashes Test in Perth on 21 November.
The headlines bits first:
• Knee surgery in early spring, no competitive overs since the Champions Trophy in February.
• A rehab programme that has lurched, rather than cruised, to where it is now.
• Departure for New Zealand next week to train with, but not actually play for, England’s white-ball squads.
• Plenty of overs in Loughborough’s heated marquee, speed gun in hand, and a plan to crank things up on tour.
England’s coaching and medical staff have been careful, almost to the point of frustration for the player, after those two previous Ashes campaigns. Wood topped the wicket charts for England in 2021-22 (even if that ended 4-0 to Australia) and blew the series open at Headingley in 2023, his pace earning him the player-of-the-match gong. Losing that kind of 90-mph threat for an entire home summer was a blow, but the 33-year-old insists the hard yards are paying off at last.
“It was a frustrating summer,” Wood told the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast. “I didn’t get to play any cricket and my knee, at times when you think that you’re just about ready to play, it was not just quite there.”
That swelling – fluid on the joint – recurred often enough for the ECB to pull him from a possible red-ball return in the fifth Test against India and, later, Durham’s Championship run-in. Wood recalls the almost-but-not-quite moments vividly. “I got knocked back a couple of times, but in the tent it’s been going well. I’ve had the speed gun out and the pace is getting up there, so I’m building nicely into New Zealand first, and then the Australian leg.”
White-ball skipper Jos Buttler will have Wood around the squad in Auckland and Wellington, yet the plan is pure training: bowl in nets, test the knee on hard surfaces, keep mileage sensible. That approach owes plenty to England’s wider pace-bowling picture. Jofra Archer is still on a managed schedule of his own and Ollie Stone has only just returned for Nottinghamshire. Ben Stokes, too, is nursing that knee of his. In short, Wood’s raw speed is a prized asset, but England can ill-afford another relapse.
“Hopefully, I’m in form, bowling well in the practice games and in the nets, and can put my hand up for that game [in Perth]. The rehab hasn’t just been a straight curve. It’s been a bit up and down, but I’m in a good position now where I’m hoping to kick on for that game.”
There are, he admits, differences between this knee saga and past surgery on his elbow and ankle. The joint would feel fine for a week, then balloon overnight. “You keep thinking, ‘I’m nearly there’ and you’re just about to press the trigger to play. The fifth Test against India, I was so close, and then when I was at my top speed, my knee swelled up so I had to have it drained.”
When history repeated itself at Durham, caution trumped enthusiasm. “Then again at the back end of the year with Durham, I was so close to playing a game, but again, I just kept getting this slight swelling. The ECB, with what was coming up, were like, ‘Look, it’s a risk we don’t need to take.’ Thankfully, the last few times I’ve bowled, there hasn’t been that swelling there. It’s much more positive.”
Wood stops short of promising the earth. “I never want to give an answer where I say, ‘Yes, I’m pumped, I’m ready’. But I’m in a confident place at the minute and feeling a lot more positive, so I’m quietly confident.”
Away from the rehab grind he has dipped a toe into coaching, working briefly with England Lions and studying for the ECB Level Three qualification alongside Steven Finn, Chris Jordan, Sarah Taylor and Chris Woakes. Those sessions have, by all accounts, helped him think about his own action and workloads with a fresher eye.
The schedule, though, remains unforgiving. After New Zealand the Test specialists fly to Perth, then on to Adelaide and Melbourne. Three high-octane Tests in four weeks can strain even the soundest body. England will almost certainly rotate their quicks; Wood, fully fit, would be the point-of-difference bowler in at least two of them.
For now, his outlook feels realistic rather than bullish. The real test will be bowling at full tilt on the bouncy WACA practice strips, then waking up the next morning to see how the knee responds. Wood and England will take quiet confidence if, this time, there is no swelling at all.
