The 35 -year marriage underwent surgery on Wednesday morning in London after the scanning confirmed the damage of the medial ligament, which stood out during the defeat on the Champions Trophy stage of England against Afghanistan in Lahore at the end of last month.
Wood was forced to leave the field after getting up in the middle of his room after experimenting “blocking” on his knee. He returned 38 minutes later, but he could only play four of his remaining six before leaving the field forever. The left knee of Durham Quick was strongly tied throughout the tournament, as it had been since the beginning of 2024.
The Wood recovery deadline means that it is very unlikely that it presents in the series of five games against India, which begins in Headingley on June 20. A perfect rehabilitation could see it available for the final test in the Kia Oval (as of July 31), with the Durham County Championship against Somerset (July 22) a potential return to competitive action. That round begins a day before the fourth test at Emirates Old Trafford.
In this situation, the ECB believes that Wood will be completely fit to tour Australia this winter. Speaking in the last week of Lord, the managing director of the men, Rob Key, declared that England “will work from the ashes” regarding the decisions around the aptitude of the rapid bowling player.
“I am detention to be out for so long after representing England in all formats since the beginning of last year,” Wood said in a statement published Thursday. “But I have all the confidence that I will shoot again in all the cylinders now that I have been able to solve my knee.
“I want to thank the surgeon, the doctors, the staff, my teammates in England and coaches for their support, and, of course, our fans. I cannot wait to return and contribute to what will be a great 2025 for us as a team.”
This last setback joins a litany of previous injuries suffered by Wood since he debuted for England in 2015. It is the eighth operation of his career, and his second in the last eight months alone, after a fracture of elbow stress discovered last August last August for action during the rest of 2024.
Wood remains the outstanding of those rapids, and his recent record against Australia underlines how vital it is to Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes in his search to claim the URN for the first time since 2015.
Wood was the only brilliant point during the last tour of England in ashes in 2021-22, with 17 WICKETS at 26.64 in a 4-0 defeat, and took 14 with 20.21 in the 2023 series raffle that arrived with Australia 2-0 above. It was also against Australia in the recent Champions Trophy that Wood launched the fastest hate opening spell in England.
McCullum leaned into the wood after assuming control of the white ball teams at the beginning of the year, choosing it for nine of his first 10 games in charge before hitting the injury.
Although Wood’s central contract, which expires in October 2026, includes limited cricket and has so far presented three tournaments (including the ODI 2023 World Cup and the 2024 T20 World Cup), it seems unlikely to appear in the cricket of the White Ball for the rest of this year.
Vithushan Ehantharajah is an associated editor in Espncricinfo
