England cricket captain Stokes ‘lucky’ to be alive after facial injury

England captain Ben Stokes was struck on the face by a cricket ball, which required surgery for a broken cheekbone.England Test captain Ben Stokes has said he feels “quite lucky” to be alive as he recovers from surgery after being hit in the face by a cricket ball.All-rounder Stokes required the procedure after suffering a broken cheekbone sustained by being hit by the ball during a net session while he was coaching academy players at his domestic county side Durham in February.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Barcelona starlets to learn from Atletico Madrid Champions League defeatlist 2 of 4Uzbek chess grandmaster Sindarov sets up world title match with Gukeshlist 3 of 4France’s Ekitike to miss World Cup after Liverpool Champions League injurylist 4 of 4Ice hockey coach admits to faking COVID certificate to enter China Olympicsend of listStokes is set to play in two first-class County Championship games next month, but he revealed the incident could have been so much worse.“I copped one straight in the face,” the 34-year-old told the England and Wales Cricket Board.“Pretty nasty but, funnily, probably the best result of a bad situation, to be honest. Just a couple of inches one way or the other, I might not be here doing this interview, if I didn’t turn my head round.“All things considered, although I had pretty major facial surgery to sort it out – it was a bit of a mess under here (cheekbone), I’ve got out quite lucky. So pretty thankful for that.”He added: “Obviously it set everything back about a month, five weeks, with getting back to where I wanted to be to play at the start of the season for Durham, but just had to sort of quickly go back to the drawing board and put a plan together to get me ready to play a couple of games for Durham before the Test summer starts.“At the back end of all that now, but it was a pretty scary situation. Thankfully still here and everything’s all right.”Stokes is expected to be fit to lead England in the first Test of their home season against New Zealand at Lord’s starting on June 4, as they look to recover from their woeful 4-1 Ashes humiliation in Australia.