England fast bowler Mark Wood seems to be contemplating retirement as he slowly recovers from a knee injury sustained during the Ashes. He made his comeback in the Test format in the first Ashes Test after a long layoff, but after sending down 11 overs in the game, he was ruled out of the remainder of the series.
Opening up about his recovery, he believes that he cannot push hard and if he does that, he eventually might have to retire as well. According to him, it is important to strike the balance 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.
"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," Wood said on the BBC Tailenders podcast.
Started thinking about other things, says Wood
Being 36, Wood admitted that he is already thinking about life after cricket and also stated that thoughts linger around his mind over the possibility of the ongoing recovery from knee injury going wrong. "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," Wood added.
Notably, Wood has some time to recover from injury as England's next Test series is scheduled in June at home against New Zealand. It also remains to be seen if he would be able to continue in the longest format anymore. He has played 38 Tests in 10 years and picked 119 wickets at an average of 30.79 with five five-wicket hauls to his name.
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