LONDON: England Test captain Ben Stokes has suffered a severe facial injury after being struck by a cricket ball.

The 34-year-old all-rounder posted a picture on Instagram showing his right eye heavily swollen and bruised, a graze on his cheek and lip, and a bandage stuffed in his nose.

“You should see the state of the cricket ball,” read Stokes’ caption of the picture, alongside a laughing face emoji.

Stokes is back in England following a woeful Ashes tour, which ended with a 4-1 series loss to Australia last month.

Although Stokes has made it clear he wants to continue to captain the red-ball side, his position remains uncertain amid an England and Wales Cricket Board review.

England coach Brendon McCullum has labelled some of the ensuing fall-out from the Ashes “out of order”.

Stokes is no longer a member of England’s white-ball set-up and won´t feature in the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka that starts this weekend.

He could next play for Durham in the early rounds of the County Championship before England begin their home Test season against New Zealand at Lord´s on June 4 — Stokes’s 35th birthday.

Stokes is currently recovering from an adductor injury suffered during the fifth Ashes Test in Sydney in January.

The injury prevented him from bowling in Australia´s second innings and completed a frustrating tour for the England skipper, who bowled well throughout the series but struggled with the bat.

Stokes’ groin problem is the latest of several injuries that have blighted his career.

In 2024, he tore his hamstring twice and he finished last season’s home series against India on the sidelines due to a shoulder problem, having undergone an operation in late 2023 to deal with knee issues.

Stokes is contracted by England until the end of the 2027 home season summer and he may now avoid entering next month’s auction for the Hundred, leaving him free to focus on the Test team.

LUBBOCK, Texas — Darryn Peterson was happy to finally finish a game for No. 11 Kansas, and the Jayhawks certainly needed the standout freshman at the end against No. 13 Texas Tech.

“This is the first game I got through to the end,” Peterson said. “I’ve been trying to all year, so to finally be able to do it, it’s a blessing.”

Peterson scored 19 points while playing a season-high 35 minutes, but his only two field goals in the second half were late 3-pointers. He made the tying basket on a contested shot from the right corner with 1:20 left, and hit again from the left wing with 44 seconds left in a 64-61 victory Monday night.

Two days earlier, Peterson scored 18 points in the first half but didn’t play the final 16:46 of a win over then-No. 13 BYU because of cramping. He is averaging 21.1 points.

An expected top pick in the NBA draft in June, Peterson had sat out a win over Kansas State the previous game because of an ankle injury. The 6-foot-5 guard has also dealt with hamstring and calf issues this season while sitting out 10 games overall for Kansas (17-5, 7-2 Big 12).

Before hitting the late 3s, Peterson was only 3-of-12 shooting against the Red Raiders (16-6, 6-3).

“He’s got something that I guess you’re born with and can’t teach. He’s got just an unbelievable ability to raise his level when it counts the most,” Jayhawks coach Bill Self said. “That’s what he did tonight. I mean, those two plays he made were obviously the two biggest plays of the game for us.”

The tying shot, after a Tech turnover, was made over preseason AP All-America forward JT Toppin, who then had his shot blocked at the other end by Flory Bidunga before missing on a second chance. Peterson then made what proved to be the winner.

“Two crucial 3s … that was crazy,” Bidunga said.

“Coach Self told me to go make a play,” said Peterson, who was then asked where his confidence came from to finish that way. “The work I put in and then my teammates and coaches. I had a bad game … shots weren’t really going. They guarded me kind of well, but I just trusted the work, so those shots I feel like I should make.”

And he did when they counted most for the Jayhawks in their sixth consecutive victory.