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Joe Root congratulates Ben Stokes
Ged Stokes, the father of the New Zealand-born England cricket star Ben stokes, has revealed that he has brain cancer, which is why his son withdrew from the Test Against Pakistan series to return home and be with his family.
Ben Stokes left England after the first test in Manchester, and is now undergoing a 14-day forced Covid-19 quarantine in New Zealand before he can be reunited with his parents in Christchurch.
Ged, a former New Zealand rugby league international, was first hospitalized in Johannesburg in December when he required emergency surgery for a brain hemorrhage three days before England’s first test against South Africa.
Further medical tests upon his return to New Zealand found tumors in his brain.
“So basically brain cancer,” Ged Stokes told the New Zealand Herald in an article published on Saturday.
“Nobody knows how that happened, but obviously I’ve had a few blows to the head in my life, so that probably contributed to it.
Ben Stokes, who last year played a man of the match role to help England beat New Zealand in a dramatic World Cup final, said he felt when his father collapsed in South Africa that it was serious.
“I had a knee injury in South Africa, but I felt my attitude change. What is a knee pain? I can cast another or I can cast another spell. I decided that an injury meant very little compared to what Dad was going through. That’s been there ever since because I felt like Dad wouldn’t see me play again, “he said.
“Even when I left South Africa to go home (to England), I had a feeling that something else was going to happen. I felt like I was constantly preparing for another phone call, so when it came it wasn’t necessarily a surprise, it just didn’t. easy “.
He praised his father and his experience as a professional rugby league player for showing him the discipline necessary to be a professional athlete.
“It was tough on me, especially when I was a teenager (17, 18, 19, when you’re a bit of a rebel), it was tough. But as I got older I realized that it was all for a reason. I knew I wanted to be a professional athlete. and he was instilling that in me when I started making a career in cricket, “Ben said.
“I didn’t realize it at the time, but when I look back, I know I was doing it for the right reasons.
“I used to get out of bed early to go to the gym with him when I didn’t want to … all those kinds of things that you didn’t appreciate at the time, but now I do.”
