Cheek injury delays Stokes' return until May
Coach Ryan Campbell said Stokes was scheduled to play the season opener against Kent starting on Friday, but the club are still awaiting clearance from specialists. Campbell said he does not expect the all-rounder to feature until matches against Worcestershire from 8 May and the reverse fixture against Kent at Beckenham from 15 May. If Stokes does not return sooner, those fixtures would be his only red-ball county matches before England's first Test of the summer against New Zealand from 4 June.
"[The incident] could have been horrific. So, so much worse than what you think," Campbell said. "A couple of centimetres a different way it hits him in the eye and it could have been different.
"The ball was hit so hard. We are just lucky he got away with it. " McCullum & Key lucky to survive Ashes review - Vaughan Stokes has not played since the end of England's dismal Ashes defeat.
He sustained an adductor injury on the penultimate day of the series in Sydney and was severely hampered. Stokes was expected to feature along with many England players in the early rounds of the County Championship amid competition for places in the Test XI. He has been retained as captain despite the 4-1 Ashes loss, while coach Brendon McCullum and managing director Rob Key have also been kept on in their roles.
After those decisions were confirmed this week, Stokes said the past three months have been "the hardest period" of his England captaincy, and backed the current regime to take the team forward. "He has been training so hard to be ready," Campbell said. "He has a lot to prove.