{"id":51583,"date":"2025-08-08T01:09:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T01:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/51583\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T01:09:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T01:09:16","slug":"dinosaur-game-england-legend-calls-for-rule-change-after-chris-woakes-thought-career-was-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/51583\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Dinosaur game’ – England legend calls for rule change after Chris Woakes thought career was over"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Vaughan’s call for a major rule change around injuries in Test cricket has taken on some more significance after Chris Woakes’ comments.<\/p>\n

Woakes suffered a dislocated shoulder<\/a> early on during the fifth Test against India at The Oval.<\/p>\n

\"Woakes<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Woakes was forced to come out and bat for England despite being in agonyCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

He didn’t bowl in India’s second innings, but he was required to bat with England needing less than 20 runs to pull off a record chase<\/a> at Surrey’s ground.<\/p>\n

Woakes came out and was willing to bat one-handed for his country, but he has now revealed that he thought his career was over.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old would never have been put in that position had a new rule proposed by Vaughan been introduced.<\/p>\n

The former England captain revealed on Stick To Cricket<\/a> that he thinks there should be injury substitutions.<\/p>\n

Woakes wasn’t the first cricketer to suffer an injury this series, with Rishabh Pant also finding himself in the same situation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He suffered a fractured foot<\/a> after a Woakes delivery smashed into him, leading to him limping out and batting before being ruled out for the remainder of the series.<\/p>\n

That led to Vaughan first suggesting that there should be injury substitutions.<\/p>\n

And on The Overlap and Betfair’s Stick to Cricket show, he doubled down: “We’re a dinosaur game when we see people break a foot, dislocate their shoulder and you can’t have a substitute.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It devalues the product for the next few days. That’s what it’s done, it’s cost England the series because England got to within six runs of beating India with ten players. <\/p>\n

“So, you could argue that it cost England the series.”<\/p>\n

\"Vaughan<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Vaughan wants to see substitutions introduced into Test cricketCredit: Getty – Contributor<\/p>\n

The idea of full substitutions in Test cricket is a controversial topic, but it takes on extra significance after Woakes’ comments.<\/p>\n

The England star has since detailed the pain he was in<\/a> when he was running to keep Atkinson on strike.<\/p>\n

He told the Guardian: \u201cThe first one was the worst.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll I had taken was codeine and it was just so sore. Instinct took over here \u2013 even with my arm strapped down I tried to run as you naturally do. <\/p>\n

“I genuinely worried my shoulder had popped back out again, hence you saw me throw my helmet off, rip the glove off with my teeth, and check it was OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Woakes<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Woakes was quite the sight with his arm in a slingCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

Further expanding on the injury itself, he said: \u201cThe outfield was wet from the rain, almost greasy, and my hand slipped as I landed and my full body weight went through my shoulder. I heard a pop and knew I was in trouble.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pain came on pretty quickly and my arm was just hanging there. It was grim and my thoughts were racing. \u2018Is it game over? Is it career done?\u2019 It was a horrible place to be. We got it into a makeshift sling with my jumper and got off the field.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cIt is a horrible feeling, your shoulder not where it should be and worrying it might never get back in. It felt like three hours but the medical staff were amazing.”<\/p>\n

What did Ben Stokes say about substitutions? <\/p>\n

The England Test captain is staunchly against it and repeated that point after watching Woakes put everything on the line.<\/p>\n

This is because he believes that teams could exploit the rules to introduce a new batter or bowler when the game isn’t going their way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could\u2019ve gone into this with a sore shoulder [saying] \u2018I\u2019ll give it a go, hopefully, I\u2019ll come through, but if I don\u2019t then somebody comes in\u2019. [Then] you select a team tactically and I think you could manipulate it. The injury ruled me out of this game.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe if we had this option [of subs], I could\u2019ve said, \u2018I know it\u2019s not worth it, but if I do go down, somebody can come in\u2019. <\/p>\n

“I couldn\u2019t risk this. If I go down in the game, it ruins the make-up of the team. I\u2019m still heavily against it. It\u2019s just sod\u2019s law it happened a week after I said it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Vaughan’s call for a major rule change around injuries in Test cricket has taken on some more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1723,25704,28501,28500,1721,309,28498,19030,101,28499,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-51583","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-ben-stokes","9":"tag-chris-woakes","10":"tag-chris-woakes-career","11":"tag-chris-woakes-injury","12":"tag-cricket","13":"tag-england","14":"tag-england-test-cricket","15":"tag-michael-vaughan","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-test-substitutions","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}