The England all-rounder had pulled out of an over late in Manchester Test after starring role in the match.
Stokes didn't bowl after the fourth delivery of his 15th over and let skipper Joe Root complete it. The 29-year-old had earlier taken the wickets of last match's hero Jermaine Blackwood and lower-order bat Alzarri Joseph.
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England eventually won by 113 runs, but there were talks around the burden on Stokes, whose 14.4 overs included an 11-over spell, that is after having scored a patient hundred in the first innings and an attacking half-century in the second.
"I'm fine," Stokes told Sky Sports. "Just the body started to get quite stiff. I said to Broady, 'the body's starting to stiffen up, what do you reckon?' and he said, 'just stop'."
"Three or four years ago against Pakistan I had the same thing and I ended up blowing my calf so I didn't want to take that risk."
Staying on that point, Stokes played down suggestions that the team management is asking too much of him.
"Absolutely not," he said. "Obviously, I'll give everything to the team, whatever is asked of me. We sort of found a method within our attack to change things up when things are looking a bit dry to go to that type of bowling or being aggressive in setting the field."
"Not only does it give us a wicket-taking option. It also dries it up because we feel the batsmen don't have really anywhere to go. So, you know, once you get past that five-, six-over mark you sort of feel like you're fresh as anything you keep going in. But I'll always do whatever's asked of me," Stokes added.
Captain Root said Stokes' outstanding all-round act in helping his team bounce back and level the three-match series with the decider to spare wasn't at all surprising.
"It doesn't surprise me, you watch how he goes about his business, whether it be in practice his fitness, everything," Root told Sky Sports. "He leads the way in many, many respects and he seems to want to keep getting better and better."
"And we're seeing those results out in the field as well, which is great for a lot of the younger guys coming through to see that you've got to put the hard yards in. He certainly does that and, you know, we're starting to see that feed into the rest of the team, which is a great place to be."
(Inputs from ESPNcricinfo)