Ben Stokes expects to be out for up to seven weeks with shoulder injury

England captain Ben Stokes felt it was just not worth the risk to his long-term fitness after being ruled out of the deciding fifth Test against India with a right shoulder injury.

Stokes, whose deputy Ollie Pope will lead the team in his absence, has been battling a variety of issues over the course of the Rothesay series and has finally been laid low with a problem that reared its head during last week’s draw at Old Trafford.

He will be replaced by Jacob Bethell, making his first Test appearance of the year in one of four changes to the England XI.

It is understood Stokes has sustained a grade-three muscle tear, meaning a significant lay-off awaits the all-rounder, although he suggested a recovery time of between six and seven weeks once his rehabilitation starts.

England do not play Test cricket again until the Ashes this winter.

“I am obviously disappointing to not be able to finish the series,” an emotional Stokes said as he addressed a press conference on Wednesday morning.

“I have got a decent tear of one of the muscles I can’t pronounce, I don’t know how to say it, but we took as long as we could to make that decision around that.

“A bit of emotion goes into this kind of stuff when you find out what you have done – bowling was ruled out as soon as we got the scan results.

“But you need that time chatting with the medical team, Baz, then just 20 minutes to myself out there in the morning just to really be clear around the decision that we made.”

Stokes added: “It was one of those where you were weighing up the risk-reward, and the risk was way too high for damaging us any further than it currently is.

“I wouldn’t expect to put any one of my players at risk with an injury like this.

“I will start rehabbing now and obviously focus on what we have got coming up in the winter.

“Obviously I am very disappointed, but I needed a bit more time that I would give to these kind of things to make a decision and it helps that we have a really good strong squad to be able to select from to put a team out that we think can get us a win this week.”

Liam Dawson has been dropped one match into his comeback, with England opting to go without a front-line spinner, while pace pair Jofra Archer and Brydon Carse are rested.

Three fresh quicks come into the side, with Surrey pair Gus Atkinson and Jamie Overton returning on home soil and Josh Tongue completing the line-up.

Published: 30/07/2025 by Radio NewsHub