England paceman Wood making slow progress from knee injury

England paceman Mark Wood said his recovery from a knee injury is “real slow going” but the 36-year-old knows that at this stage of his career it could all be over if he pushes too hard.

Wood returned to the longest format after 15 months to feature in the first Ashes test against Australia in November, but was ruled out of the remainder of the series following a recurrence of a left knee injury.

“It’s real slow going with the stage I am at in my career,” Wood told the BBC’s Tailenders podcast.

“It’s quite a fine balance, where if I push this too hard then that could be it.

“It’s six-week blocks, it’s not day by day, it’s specialists and rescans every six weeks. It’s been improving since what I got told had been an explosion in my knee in Australia.

“I’ve started running now and I’m hoping by the next block it’s in a position where maybe I can start lightly bowling.”

England call up Bashir and Potts for Sydney Ashes Test

Wood, who has taken 253 international wickets in 38 tests, 70 ODIs and 38 Twenty 20s, said the latest spell on the sidelines has made him start thinking about life beyond the sport.

“I’ve started thinking about other things, doing podcasts, doing my coaching badges,” he said.

“I’ve now started to try and think for the first time about what I should do if this doesn’t go well.”

England will next host New Zealand in a three-match test series in June.