Mark Wood struggling for recovery, anticipates another elbow operation

England fast bowler Mark Wood has confirmed that he may need another surgery on his elbow injury which he sustained during the West Indies tour in March this year. Wood has been out of the team since then and was ruled out of the whole of the English summer. "I'm struggling to be honest. I need another operation, unfortunately. I played that club cricket game for Ashington, which was basically a test. The ECB got me to play that game to see how it was l," Wood stated to Sky Sports on the broadcast of the first ODI between England and South Africa.

Wood missed out on IPL where he was picked by the new franchise Lucknow Super Giants. However, he did participated in a club cricket game for Ashington which was a kind of unofficial fitness test for him. The 32-year-old player told that he didn't recover fine after that game. "I'd been bowling well for two or three weeks in the nets, but when it came to the match, it wasn't so much during the game but the day after. So my elbow is really sore and I'm struggling to fully straighten it again. So there must be something going on. It's weird because my ankle feels like a real injury, this doesn't feel like a real injury to me, my elbow, it's just been a nuisance, " he added.

The T20 World Cup is set to begin in Australia later this year and Wood has been hoping for a return to the English team before the global tournament. England are already facing injury woes with the likes of Jofra Archer, Chris Woakes, and Saqib Mahmood featuring the list. Wood may join the injured fast bowlers' list if he didn't recover in time.

"I've got to get it sorted right now if I want to be fit for the T20 World Cup, which is the goal. It's just been frustrating when I've done everything I could, listened to all the experts and done what they've said. To not get over that final hump is so frustrating, " he concluded. England lost the 1st ODI against South Africa by 62 runs with Ben Stokes who couldn't do much with both bat and ball in his last ODI match retired from the format.