England all-rounder Chris Woakes said that surgery is his best option for recovering to full fitness, as he was set to undergo a knee surgery on Thursday (July 28).
He hasn't played a full game since the West Indies tour earlier this year and upon returning to the UK, he complained of a sore knee.
The Warwickshire cricketer has said that he had a frustrating summer because of the injury.
"It's been a really frustrating summer," Woakes told the BBC's Test Match Special.
"I came back from the Caribbean at the end of March and had a sore knee. I thought I'd just have a few weeks off and then get back up and running, and it hasn't quite gone that way.
"I've really struggled with my knee without really knowing exactly what's wrong. I've finally got to the situation now where really the only chance I've got of getting back to full fitness is by going for some surgery," he said.
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He continued by saying that his recovery from the operation will likely take four to six weeks.
"Everything that I'm getting from the surgeon who seems to be quite optimistic about it all. He's saying four to six weeks - more likely to be six than four," Woakes added. "It all depends really on what they find on the inside but they're hoping that it's not going to be anything too drastic. It should be a fairly routine keyhole surgery.
"Touch wood, they don't find anything in there that we're not [expecting]. I'm pretty excited at the fact that I'm hopefully getting the problem sorted rather than letting this linger on like I have done over the last couple of months which have been really frustrating, to be honest, to miss so much cricket.”
The 33-year-old played 6 games for England during the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021 in the UAE and picked up 7 wickets with an economy rate of 7.36.
The seam options for England are limited because Jofra Archer, Mark Wood, and Saqib Mahmood are all but certain to miss this year's tournament in Australia due to their respective injuries. Woakes stated that his goal was to be available for selection.
"It should hopefully be really straightforward rehab and hopefully back - obviously the aim for myself is to be available for selection for that T20 World Cup. Fingers crossed I can be a part of that.
"This particular injury has been really frustrating. It's teased me a little bit. I can do almost everything absolutely fine until a certain level. I get to a stage where I need to bowl at batsmen at full tilt and then it flares up. That's the annoying thing about this one. It's not like I can't do anything, it's just when I get to that full capacity." he added further.
(BBC INPUTS)
