Ashington-born fast bowler Mark Wood announces England retirement
Mark Wood has confirmed that he has retired from international and 50-over cricket.
Ashington-born England fast bowler Mark Wood has announced his retirement from international cricket due to a knee injury.
The 36-year-old - who made his county debut for Northumberland in 2008 and represents Durham at club level - featured in 38 Tests for his country, taking 119 wickets in the process.
Because of his persistent knee issues, however, Wood has not played for England since the first Test of the 2025/26 Ashes series, and taking to social media on Tuesday morning, he confirmed that he has made the difficult call to walk away from the international game.
He said: “l've made the decision to retire from international cricket. Although this may not come as a surprise given the past year, it just feels like a natural time at the end of my contract.
“l've always tried to be resilient and come back from injury to prove people wrong and show everyone what I can do. Unfortunately, this time I lost the battle. On medical advice, Test cricket and 50-over cricket are not possible, so the England dream has slowly been ground out of me over the last year.
“Playing for England has been the GREATEST honour I could have ever wished for and a dream come true. The little lad in me would be so chuffed to have played so much for England. To travel the world, meet incredible people and play with and against the best, is something I feel incredibly lucky to have done, doing something I have loved.”
Wood continued: “There is no better feeling than playing for England and the pride I've had wearing the shirt can't really be explained. I hope I've represented my family, my cricket club, town, and region of the North East with pride, and I hope I have represented the country in just the same way. I have peace of mind that I tried my very best, I gave it everything I had and tried to bowl every ball like it was my last and as fast as I could!
“To the fans, thank you for your support and cheering me on home and away... Most importantly to my family and friends, thanks for always being there in good times and bad. Behind the scenes, having to deal with setbacks, knowing I had a grounded support always made me want to come back even better.
“I got to live out a dream and I hope I can continue playing cricket in some capacity and pursuing other challenges in the future.”