Stitches yet to dissolve: England’s Jordan Cox recalls painful appendix operation

Jordon Cox recalled the appendix operation he underwent last month that could have halted his career. Instead, the right-handed batter fought his way up and recently earned his maiden call-up to the England national team. Cox was named in the 14-member squad for the three-match Test series against Sri Lanka. Cox got a chance after Zak Crawley was ruled out with a finger injury.

Doctors had told him that he needed two to three months to fully recover. However, he was rushed back into action for the Hundred Men’s competition where he is a part of the Oval Invincibles. When he was taking a morning walk, Cox got a missed call after which he got to know about his inclusion in the English Test side.

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“I was in hospital for three hours. At midnight, they were like, ‘we need to operate – now.’ The surgeon told me it was going to be an eight-to-twelve week process. That would have ruled me out of the Hundred, which was quite upsetting,” Cox was quoted as saying on ESPNcricinfo.

‘There is a little ping’

Cox has played two matches thus far in which he has scored 29 runs at an average of 14.50 and a strike-rate of 93.54. Cox said that he still feels a little discomfort around his hamstring.

“One of the stitches hadn’t dissolved yet, so it’s still pulling on my hamstring. It feels like every time I overextend that muscle, there’s a little ‘ping’ but I’ve been to have an MRI scan and the surgeons have said it’s not going to do any further harm,” Cox said.

The Test call-up had taken Cox by surprise as he was looking forward towards playing ODI and T20Is for the Three Lions.

“I definitely didn’t think the call was going to be for the Test side. I thought I was a lot closer to the white-ball side of things – to get a call for, hopefully, all three formats would be pretty awesome,” Cox added.

Sri Lanka’s Test series against England starts on August 21 with the opener at the Emirates Old Trafford in Manchester.