England Fast Bowler Mark Wood Fears Retirement as Knee Injury Recovery Slows

Mark Wood is thinking about retirement as he recovers from the knee injury he suffered during The Ashes. He returned to Test cricket in the first Ashes Test after a long break, but after bowling 11 overs in the match, he was ruled out of the rest of the series due to the injury. 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.

At 36, Mark Wood said he has started thinking about life after cricket. He also admitted that he worries about his knee injury recovery and the possibility that it might not go as planned.

"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.

Mark Wood has some time to recover as England cricket team will play their next Test series in June at home against New Zealand national cricket team. However, it is still unclear if he will be able to continue playing in Test cricket. 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.