Stone: Putting two screws in my back was best decision I ever made

After suffering a third stress fracture in 2021, Olly Stone spent four months weighing up whether to have two screws inserted into the vertebrae of his lower back.
Three years on, Stone, 30, is on the verge of his fourth Test appearance, against Sri Lanka at Lord’s on Thursday, and he is convinced that those two screws were among the best decisions he has made.
Stone, who made his Test debut against Ireland in 2019, has been unluckier than most when it comes to injuries — he has had four operations, on his back, finger, anterior cruciate ligament and ankle — but will now replace Mark Wood after his fellow fast bowler suffered a thigh injury in the first Test.
Stone has been a regular in England squads when he has been fit and, after missing much of the 2023 season with a hamstring injury, he has played most of this summer, appearing 28 times across all formats for Nottinghamshire and London Spirit. It is the second-most appearances he has made in a single season and says his body feels “as good as gold”.
In his past three Test appearances Stone has taken ten wickets at 19.40. He is the only change to the team who beat Sri Lanka by five wickets in the first Test, with Chris Woakes being passed fit despite appearing to struggle on the final day at Old Trafford.
For Stone, his return has been a long time coming and will be much relished. With so many injuries — he has had back stress fractures on four separate occasions in his professional career — it would have been tempting to give up on first-class and Test cricket and just tread the franchise circuit instead, but the Norfolk-born bowler says red-ball cricket gives him a buzz that cannot be replicated.
“I just love the feeling of coming off after a long four or five days on the back of a hard-fought win,” he said. “It’s more than just skill at times, it’s your character and the way you are there as a team for four or five days. It’s something that white-ball cricket can’t give you. I just love the slog of that hard graft, going out there and providing your team with something different to help you try and win the game.
“I’ve always said that one of the reasons I went down the surgical route to have my back sorted was so I could go out and play Test cricket again. It’s never been in my mind to give that up. If my body gave up on me, maybe I’d have to step away, but thankfully so far I’ve found a way and I can be back out there in an England shirt.”
It was during the summer after his most recent Test appearance, against New Zealand in 2021, that Stone had to make the decision whether to have surgery and when he did have the operation, it took place in the Wellington Hospital, which overlooks Lord’s.
“It’s the best thing I ever went in for and thankfully, touch wood, I’ve had no recurrence with that,” he said. “I had screws inserted, one in my L3 vertebrae and one in my L4 [in the lower back], basically just to stop it cracking again and it was definitely the right decision.
“There’s always a fear of whether surgery will work but the surgeon reassured me with how many times he had done it and how he had put more screws in someone else’s back than he was putting in mine. It wasn’t just about cricket, though, it was about everyday life, and I wanted to be able to play club cricket, even if professional cricket wasn’t an option. I lost 13 months of my career to it, but it’s part and parcel of being a fast bowler.”
Stone does not have an ECB central contract, but the England management are hoping the Nottinghamshire seamer can form part of a pack of fast bowlers who will travel to Australia for the next Ashes, in 2025-26.
He has been doing reformer Pilates regularly to try to stay fit, having experienced a full summer schedule. He has played six County Championship matches this season, getting through 152 overs and taking 11 wickets, and is hitting top speeds of more than 90mph regularly. He has also had a very good season with the bat, hitting three half-centuries, and is likely to bat at No8 for England, ahead of Gus Atkinson, Matthew Potts and Shoaib Bashir.
“I feel like maybe I have found something this year, nothing glaringly obvious, but I have changed my mindset and once I am in, I am playing more shots, playing more positively,” he said. “County cricket and Test cricket are quite different so that’ll test me, but I am looking forward to it.”
England XI Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Ollie Pope (captain), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith, Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Matthew Potts, Olly Stone, Shoaib Bashir.
Second Test, Lord’s Starts Thursday, 11amTV Sky SportsRadio BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra