• Source:PTI
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India vs England 5th Test: Ben Stokes did not care about his injury-ravaged body while bowling those difference-making overs for England over the course of the first four Tests but he says the risk is far too high to go out one last time in the series for the team he leads from the front.

Stokes, the leading wicket-taker of the series with 17 scalps, will be a mere spectator at The Oval, robbing the series finale of his charismatic on-field presence.

After all, all those long spells Stokes bowled at Lord's and Manchester had an adverse impact on his right shoulder, leading to a muscle tear. The fighter that he is, Stokes was bullish about his participation at The Oval, but the scans revealed he could not go any further even if he wanted to.

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Stokes will call the shots from the dressing room but England will not have his invaluable service with both bat and ball.

"It's one of those weighing up the risk-reward, and the risk was way too high for damaging this any further than it currently is. I didn't want to... and I wouldn't expect to put any one of my players at risk with an injury like this.

"I'll start rehabbing and focus on what we've got coming up. Very disappointed but almost needed a bit more time than I normally would give to these kind of things to make a decision," said Stokes, who expects to be fully fit in six to seven weeks ahead of the Ashes Down Under.

Stokes was visibly disappointed at missing out on the final Test of the series that he had given his all for, but his sense of humour remained intact.

"It's a decent tear of one of the muscles I can't pronounce, because I don't know how to say it (smiles). We took as long as we could to make the decision. There was a bit of emotion going into this kind of stuff when you find out what you've done.

"I came down here this morning to give myself every chance of seeing if I could just play as a batter. Bowling was ruled out as soon as the scans came in. You need that time chatting with the medical team, Baz, and then almost just 20 minutes to myself out there, just to really be clear around the decision that we made."

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Asked if he could have managed his workload differently, Stokes replied in the negative.

"No, not at all. When I'm out on the field, I play to win and give everything I possibly can. If I feel there's a moment in a game where I need to put everything, I'll do that because it's how much this team means to me, playing for England means to me, winning means to me."

"There's absolutely nothing I could have done before. Being a professional, sportsman injuries are part of this game, and I can't do anything about that,” said Stokes, who remains confident that his team can do the job without him.