Wood ‘improving’ but thinking of life after cricket

Fast bowler Mark Wood has admitted life after cricket is in his thoughts if recovery from his latest injury “doesn’t go well”.

The 36-year-old returned to Test cricket in the 2025-26 Ashes series after 15 months out with an elbow injury followed by knee surgery.

He returned to bowl just 11 overs in the first Ashes Test in November, which England lost inside two days.

He then missed the second Test with swelling in the knee and was subsequently ruled out of the tour.

“It’s real slow going with the stage I’m at in my career,” said Wood as he gave an update on his recovery to the Tailenders podcast.

“It’s quite a fine balance, where if I push this too hard then that could be it.”

The Durham bowler explained there had been improvement in the condition of his knee, with his recovery split into two phases

“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.

Wood has been plagued by injuries during his career – including multiple knee and elbow operations – which have robbed England for periods of one of their finest strike bowlers.

He spent seven months rehabilitating his knee in order to be fit for the Ashes and lamented not being able to play some games for his county before heading to Australia for the series.

“I tried to get back at certain points but my knee wasn’t quite ready,” he said.

“It’s easy in hindsight, even if I was at 80% then at least the game would have given us an indicator of where I was.”

He was thought to have been close to a return in the home summer, but ultimately did not take the field until England’s only Ashes warm-up game against the Lions at Lilac Hill in November.

He bowled eight overs but was only cleared to play in the first Test following a hamstring scan.

For now, although focused on his recovery, Wood said he has been thinking about life after cricket: “I’ve started thinking about other things, doing podcasts, 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 – regarded as one of the fastest bowlers to play for England – has taken 119 wickets in 38 Tests since making his debut in 2015.