'Risk is too high' Injured Stokes ruled out of fifth Test but not the Ashes

Ben Stokes has been ruled out of the final Test match of England's summer with a grade-three muscle tear in his shoulder, aggravated during the drawn fourth game against India at Old Trafford.

- Simon Burnton

Ollie Pope will captain the side in his absence as England seek to defend their 2-1 lead and complete a series victory.

Recovery from a muscle injury of such severity is estimated to take between six and 10 weeks, though England's medical team have estimated Stokes's likely absence towards the lower end of that range.

The team are due to arrive in Australia for the start of their Ashes preparations in just over 14 weeks, with their captain optimistic that he will have fully recovered in time for a potentially career-defining series.

But the injury leaves Stokes in a similar position to last year, when a grade-three hamstring tear sustained in August left him racing to recover in time for England's first Test of the winter, in Pakistan, two months later. On that occasion he failed to hit his deadline, playing only the last two games of the series and bowling in one of them.

"We took as long as we could to make the decision," Stokes said. "I came down [to the Oval] this morning to give myself every chance just to play as a batter - bowling was ruled out as soon as we got the scan results.

"It's one of those where weighing up the risk and reward: the risk was way too high. So I'll start rehabbing now and focus on what we've got coming up in the winter. Once this series was done I was feet up anyway, so it doesn't make too much difference."