Ged Stokes, the father of New Zealand-born England all-rounder, Ben Stokes, has revealed he has brain cancer because wich the latter decided not to feature in the Test series against Pakistan as he had visited his to see his ailing father. Ben Stokes left England after the first Test in Manchester and is now undergoing 14-days Covid-19 enforced quarantine in New Zealand before he can join his parents in Christchurch.

Ged, a former New Zealand rugby league international, was first hospitalized while in Johannesburg in December where he went through emergency surgery for a brain bleed three days before England’s first Test against South Africa. On further tests, it was found that Stokes’ father had tumors on his brain. 

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Explaining the same to New Zealand Herald, Gen Stoke said, “So, basically brain cancer. How that came about nobody knows but obviously I’ve had a few bangs on my head throughout my life so that’s probably contributed to it. It wouldn’t have helped.”

Ben Stokes, who won the man-of-the-match role to help England beat New Zealand in a dramatic World Cup final, said he sensed that something is seriously wrong with his father when the latter collapsed in South Africa.

Stokes explained, “I was carrying a knee injury in South Africa but I felt my attitude change. I decided an injury meant very little compared with what Dad was going through. Even when I left South Africa to get back home (to England), I had a feeling something else would happen. I felt like I was constantly preparing myself for another phone call, so when it came it wasn’t necessarily a surprise but it didn’t make it any easier.”

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The veteran all-rounder also went on to praise his father, and his experiences as a professional rugby league player, for making him a disciplined person which helped him to be a professional sportsman.