England captain Ben Stokes does not think the heavier bowling workload he undertook in the third test against New Zealand was a contributory factor to the hamstring injury he suffered during the match.
Stokes, who missed four tests after tearing the same hamstring during The Hundred in August, played no further part in the match after suffering the injury on Monday.
“Every time you walk out onto a field as an athlete, you’re putting yourself at risk of getting injury,” the 33-year-old said in Hamilton after England’s loss by 423 runs on Tuesday.
“I worked my ass off to get to where I was in this game, in particular, with my body. It’s just Sod’s law that the first time in a while I feel like I’m young again, something happens.”
Stokes bowled 24 overs in New Zealand’s first innings and was two balls into his 13th over of the second when he suffered the injury – a much heavier workload than in the first two tests.
The all-rounder said he had been extremely emotional after being forced to leave the field and questioned whether there was anything he could have done differently to avoid the injury.
“When you, when you sleep in it and you take the emotion out of it, you realise that when you’re walking out there, you’re always putting yourself at risk,” he added.
“And that’s what it is. I worked really hard to get myself into position to play the role that I did this game, and it’s just one of those unfortunate things.”
Stokes, who will have an MRI scan on the injury on Wednesday, said he would have batted on Tuesday if England had been close to chasing down their monumental target.
England do not play again in the longest format until a one-off test against Zimbabwe in May before a five-match home series against India in July and August.
“With my injury in the summer, straightaway I looked at we’ve got certain amount of time until the next test series, whereas this one we’ve got ages till we meet up as a test team again,” he said.
“But I can’t go into too much detail until we actually know what the extent of the injury is. I certainly hope (I’ll be fit to face India), it’s not that bad.”
