2 min readMar 14, 2026 08:06 PM IST
A slow recovery from a knee injury has cast doubts over whether England pacer Mark Wood would make a recovery good enough to once again be a part of the English setup. The 36 year old, who had returned to Test cricket after a lengthy layoff following an elbow injury and then a knee surgery missed out on the Ashes because of the injuries he was suffering from.
He was part of the first Ashes Test but his body broke down after he bowled eleven overs and was not a part of England’s overseas tour loss for the remainder. Wood now believes that it’s a delicate line between preserving his body and pushing too hard.
“It’s real slow going with the stage I’m at in my career. It’s quite a fine balance, where if I push this too hard, then that could be it,” said Wood on his recovery on the BBC Tailenders podcast.
Talking about the recovery process, Wood said the measuring yardstick for his injury was not day-by-day as of yet, but rather divided into blocks of six weeks.
“It’s six-week blocks; it’s not day by day. It’s specialists and rescans every six weeks. It’s been improving since what I got told had been an explosion in my knee in Australia. So every six weeks has been an improvement. I’ve started running now, and I’m hoping by the next block it’s in a position where maybe I can start lightly bowling.”
The lengthy injury layoff has now forced Wood into thinking about life after cricket. The English pacer spoke about getting his coaching badges in line and possibly going on podcasts once he called quits on his career.
“I’ve started thinking about other things, doing podcasts and doing my coaching badges. I’ve now started to try and think for the first time about what I should do if this doesn’t go well.”
