Mark Wood has been ruled out of action for the rest of the year after scans revealed he had picked up a stress injury to his right elbow.
Wood had been ruled out of England's Test series against Sri Lanka with a thigh strain, but the more serious elbow injury means he will miss England’s Test tours to Pakistan and New Zealand over the coming winter, and will target their white-ball series against India ahead of the 2025 Champions Trophy for a return to action. It’s a significant blow to England, who would have hoped to have Wood’s extra pace available to them in Pakistan to repeat their memorable series win in 2022. Despite the welcome emergence of Gus Atkinson over the summer and return to fitness of Olly Stone and Saqib Mahmood, Wood remains England’s quickest option in Tests and would have been an important point of difference in Pakistan. Wood played the second two Tests of the 2022 series and took eight wickets at an average of 20.37.
England have used Wood sparingly over the last three years, in a bid to keep him injury free for their most important events. The last time he played a full series of more than two matches in any format was in 2020, when he played all three home T20Is against Australia. However, even with that extensive management, his workload over the last 12 months has gradually crept up as his spell without serious injury extended.
He was excused from the white-ball tour of the West Indies in the aftermath of the 2023 World Cup to ensure his availability for the Test series in India earlier this year. It was a scarce series where Wood was available for all ffive Tests at near-enough full fitness, and he took on a heavy workload across the three matches he played, even operating as the lone seamer in the opening Test. He bowled 77.5 overs during the series - only James Anderson and Mohammad Siraj bowled more among pacers.
Wood was given a long break following that series, only returning for one T20 ahead of the World Cup in June. Concerns over his knee prevented him from playing a more active part in England’s warm-ups. Still, following the campaign in the Caribbean, Wood was made available for England’s second Test match against the West Indies and quickly made an impact. Not only did he clock speeds well above 95mph in his opening spell, but he sent down 58 overs across the series.
In total, Wood has sent down 171.1 overs in an England shirt this year. Although it’s an amount almost equal to the volume he bowled across 2023 and 2022, his points of heavy workload this year have been more condensed, partly due to his prolonged fitness, with his only break of more than a month coming after the India series in the spring. Equally, England will have been hoping to get more overs out of him in Pakistan and perhaps New Zealand in December. That would have taken his total far in excess of the overs he has bowled on a yearly basis since the 2021/22 Ashes, and would’ve marked his most intense period since that time.
Wood’s previous injuries which have required long rehab periods have predictably come at the end of heavy workload periods. He sustained a shoulder injury during the 2021 summer after sending down 127 overs across formats over the preceding two-and-a-half months, which kept him out until the 2021 T20 World Cup. He underwent elbow surgery in the spring of 2022 after playing four out of five Ashes Tests followed immediately by another Test match in the West Indies. That injury meant he missed the 2022 IPL and the entirety of England’s first Bazball summer. After eight T20Is, two ODIs, two Tests and a spell in the IPL between September 2022 and March 2023, he was out of action from then until the third Ashes Test of last summer.
Wood has previously spoken of how prolonged and repeated periods of rehab led him to contemplate retiring from Test cricket in the hope of extending his international career. He’s also stated his wish to play in more franchise leagues and maximise on the money he could make during a short and interrupted career. So far, those opportunities have been difficult to fit around injury and making sure he’s fit for landmark England events.
As for where there is to go next, Wood has another two years remaining on his central contract. His and England’s eyes are openly on the 2025/26 Ashes series as the end goal of their current period. “The ECB mentioned that, if I could keep my standards and my pace, the Ashes away was the tour that they wanted me to get to,” Wood said last year.
There’s also five Tests against India next summer to consider, and this current injury is a serious setback. It will be carefully planned to get Wood back to his fittest and fastest for the next Ashes tour down under. By that point, he will be on the cusp of his 36th birthday. With that also to consider, England crowds need to savour the sight of him sending down 97mph rockets while they can, as the opportunities to see him do it are running out.
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