Mark Wood Ruled Out for the Rest of 2024 with Elbow Injury
England’s premier fast bowler, Mark Wood, will be sidelined for the rest of 2024 because of a bone-stress injury to his right elbow.
Due to this setback, he will miss the important Test series that are slated for later this year against Pakistan and New Zealand.
After sustaining a right thigh strain while bowling during the first Test at Old Trafford, Wood was precautionarily removed from the current Sri Lanka series. He later shared on Instagram that he had received some “pretty rubbish news” and that he had undergone what he had hoped to be a routine elbow scan after experiencing joint pain.
“During what I thought was routine check on a previously troublesome elbow, I was shocked to learn I’ve got some bone stress in my right elbow,” Wood wrote.
Consequentlyly, he will miss England’s last six Test matches of the year, three against New Zealand in December and three against Pakistan in October.
With the goal of getting back to full fitness by early 2025, in time for England’s white-ball tour of India and the ICC Champions Trophy in Pakistan, which is set to start in February 2025, he will continue to train closely with the ECB medical staff in the interim.
Wood had some of his quickest bowling of his international career, so you can imagine his surprise at receiving this diagnosis. In July, during the Trent Bridge Test match against the West Indies, he achieved a maximum speed of 97.1 mph in a thrilling display that resulted in Kevin Sinclair breaking his forearm. Ben Stokes, the captain of the team, predicted that he would surpass 100 mph before his career ended.
Despite being comparatively underappreciated for that performance, he ended the series at Edgbaston with 5 for 40, his first five-wicket haul in a home Test. But in two innings at Old Trafford against Sri Lanka, he only bowled 18.2 overs before being removed from the game.
“After the minor groin injury at Emirates Old Trafford, me and the medical team felt it was a good time to get my elbow looked at as it was a bit irritated,” Wood continued in his Instagram post. “I would attribute that to the typical discomfort that fast bowlers have, which I was enduring while playing.
“I’m shocked in particular because I’ve been playing fast cricket in Test matches.
“This is even more disheartening because I work really hard to maintain my fitness and put in extra effort with coaches and physiotherapists. Still, as Stokesy puts it, this is ‘part of being a fast bowler’.
“I will be absent for the remainder of the year in order to rest and rehabilitate; I fully anticipate returning to work in early 2025. I’ve been here before, so I’ll put in all the hard work in the background. Nothing makes me feel more pleased to represent my nation than I do. I’ll see you in 2025 for some rockets.
In Wood’s absence, Josh Hull, a 20-year-old left-arm seamer, made his debut in the ongoing third Test at The Oval, while Olly Stone was called up for last week’s Lord’s Test, his first Test since having back surgery three years ago.
