The extent of Ben Stokes' knee injury looks more for show: Lance Klusener ahead of 2023 World Cup

Former South Africa all-rounder Lance Klusener credited England veteran Ben Stokes for always being available for selection for his country despite having a knee issue.

Stokes seemed set to finally have the knee surgery after the Ashes and in the lead-up to the Test series against India in January 2024. However, he reversed his ODI retirement and is back with England's ODI team to defend their World Cup crown.

Here's what Lance Klusener was quoted by CricBlog as telling Online Cricket Betting about Ben Stokes' knee niggle:

“Always looks like he’s carrying an injury. Never misses a game. I don’t know what to make of it. Someone with a hunger for the game. Always nice to see him in any set up, the extent of his knee injury; looks more for show than really anything. I haven’t seen him miss anything because of it. I think if it was a concern, they’d probably ask him to stop playing Test cricket and preserve him in some sort of way.”

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No need to be too concerned about Ben Stokes: Lance Klusener

Given Stokes' pedigree in big games, many teams might have special plans in place for the southpaw come the World Cup. However, Lance Klusener feels there are quite a few dangerous players in England's squad apart from Stokes that need to be looked at as well.

On this, he stated:

"Ben Stokes is a proper good player but there’s ten other guys in that England team that are pretty decent so I don’t think there’s any real reason to be too concerned about one player. Scoring runs consistently in a place like India and the team that can do that will go deep into the competition.”

England will open their World Cup 2023 campaign in a repeat of the 2019 final against New Zealand in Ahmedabad on Thursday, October 5.