Ben Stokes has stopped drinking alcohol during his latest injury rehabilitation in an effort to be firing on all cylinders for England this summer. The Test captain is set to make his comeback on Thursday in the one-off Test against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge, having been sidelined since December aftertearing his left hamstring in New Zealand.
He rushed back from a similar injury last year but his recovery this time after an operation has been painstakingly managed and Stokes has left no stone unturned to fulfil his vow to return in peak physical condition. Speaking to the Untapped podcast, the 33-year-old said: “After my first major injury, I remember the shock of it, after the initial adrenaline had stopped, thinking: ‘How has this happened? We did have a bit of a drink four or five nights ago, could that have played a part? It wouldn’t have helped.’
“Then I was like: ‘OK, I need to start changing what I do.’ I don’t think I’ll ever be completely sober but I’ve not had a drink since 2 January. I said to myself: ‘Not until I finish my injury rehab and get back on the field.’ I think the day I wake up and can’t be bothered to do the training programme is getting towards that time you don’t really want it any more. But I haven’t got any interest in stopping.
“It’s just getting harder to do everything. Hence why now I feel like I have to work so much harder away from the field, in the gym and all that kind of stuff to just give me the best chance of being out there to perform. But I’ll keep going as long as I possibly can.”
Stokes, who is hoping to play a full role as an all-rounder against Zimbabwe, revealed his relationship with alcohol is much changed compared with when he was younger. A talking point in Stokes’s much-publicised court case, where he was found not guilty of affray, was on how much he had consumed during a night out in Bristol that ended in a street brawl in 2017.
Cricket and alcohol have been – occasionally uncomfortable – bedfellows at every level historically but Stokes said he and many others have had to adapt to the increasing standards in the professional game. Stokes said: “I can have a social drink now. It used to drive my wife, Clare, mad that I would just be all or nothing. If we’d go for a nice dinner, I never really understood why it was so frustrating to her but all she wanted to do is share a glass of wine with her husband. Now I get it. I can appreciate it for what it is, not just to get me pissed.
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“In the 90s and 00s there were unbelievable stories [about drinking]. It’s definitely settled down a lot over the years. The game is more demanding on the body than it was. There’s so much more cricket, there’s so much more in the schedule that it’s just impossible for the body to be able to withstand all of that anyway without the downsides of what a couple of beers at the end of the day can do to you for the next day.”