Stokes says no issues with knee injury for Adelaide

Ben Stokes has downplayed concern over his fitness, saying a knee issue that had him hobbling at the Gabba was "an old injury that flares up every now and again" and will not affect him in the second Test.

Stokes, who was playing his first Test match since March, had appeared below his best in the Vodafone Ashes opener in Brisbane.

The New Zealand-born 30-year-old pulled up hobbling after chasing a ball to the boundary in Australia's first innings, raising fears injury to the talismanic allrounder would add to England's issues.

"Having a long break is going to show itself I guess, but there are no excuses from me," Stokes wrote in his column for UK tabloid The Mirror.

"People will have seen me rubbing my knee from time to time when I was in the field, but rest assured I'm fine.

"It is an old injury that flares up every now and again, but I know how to manage it.

"It just gets a little bit uncomfortable every now and again in and around my cartilage, but it just looks worse than it is by the way I try and get off it as soon as I can."

Stokes, who scored 5 and 14 in his two innings, dismissed by Australia captain Pat Cummins both times, said "the one positive is that I probably can't get much worse than that".

"With the bat I actually felt good, until I got out in both innings. That's all it takes. One ball and your day is ruined just like that," he wrote.

The allrounder also leaked 65 runs from his 12 overs, and bowled a number of no-balls, including one which robbed him of the wicket of David Warner in Australia's first innings.

"It was frustrating to have David Warner out early in his innings only for a no-ball to chalk it off.

"Some have suggested that I knew it was a no-ball immediately after he was bowled, but I didn't, that was just my reaction.

"It was only when I turned round and saw the way (umpire) Rod Tucker was talking that I thought it might have been and it turns out there were quite a few.

"There are two sides to it. I should be behind the line, but as a bowler it is also helpful when the umpire lets you know you are over, but I wasn't told until it was too late."

The ICC's automated no-ball detection hardware had failed in Brisbane, one of a number of tech-related issues to strike the opening Test, meaning on-field umpires had to revert back to calling front-foot no-balls.

Just six were called in the entire Test – all for England – while the Real Time Snicko technology, provided by the host broadcaster, was also unavailable for the Test after it suffered a hardware failure.

Stokes had missed England's entire home Test series against India earlier this year and had not played any cricket since featuring in two Hundred games in July, after which he announced an indefinite break from the game to deal with a finger injury and his mental health.

Down 0-1 in the five-Test series after a nine-wicket defeat in Brisbane, Stokes said "now is not the time to panic" ahead of the day-night Test in Adelaide, where Stokes made his debut in the 2013-14 summer.

"We have a good track record of bouncing back pretty well after a defeat early in a series," Stokes wrote. "We came back against South Africa to win, we came back against the West Indies last year to win, so we've done it before and we can do it again."

Vodafone Men's Ashes

Squads

Australia: Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith (vc), Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner

England: Joe Root (c), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Dom Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Haseeb Hameed, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Dawid Malan, Craig Overton, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

Schedule

First Test: Australia won by nine wickets

Second Test: December 16-20, Adelaide Oval

Third Test: December 26-30, MCG

Fourth Test: January 5-9, SCG

Fifth Test: January 14-18, Blundstone Arena