I went to clear a ball with no one around me. As I've landed on one of those synthetic pitches, my left foot with the studs got stuck into the astroturf. I've then hyperextended the knee, buckled over forwards and landed on the floor in front of me.

Mr Neil Jain (Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon):

'Ben first presented to me a few years ago. He tore his ACL, he tore his medial meniscus, lateral meniscus and his posterolateral corner. So, a lot of surgery really to fix that.'

Mr Neil Jain:

'Ben was suitable for JewelACL in my opinion because he was a good-level athlete, keen to return to sport, understood the context, and it was very easy to consent that way about some of the controversies, or previous controversies, about using the synthetic ACL.'

When I first met him [Mr Neil Jain], I think the first major bit that stuck with me was the return to sport as quickly as possible because, at my age when it first happened, at 23 or 24, it was trying to get back into sport as quickly as possible.

Mr Neil Jain:

'The fact that we've used a synthetic ACL, the strength of the graft in that early phase is there. Usually with an autograft, that strength diminishes before the graft undergoes a process known as ligamentisation.

The benefits of using a hybrid graft is that the structure of the synthetic graft means that doesn't happen. That strength is there from day one, and so the feeling is we can be a bit more aggressive with the rehab.'

The speed at which I got back, and for me it wasn't just getting back to playing full sport. It was being able to go back and go out for a walk, build it up to a slow jog, go to the gym, something like that.

When you start hitting month two into month three, those little small steps are big ticks for me because you're returning back to sport. It might not be the sport you want to do, but using the JewelACL, it was being able to return back to doing those physical activities a little bit quicker.

When I returned to sport, I returned back to kind of where the peak of where I was trying to. I was going back to bowling a full run-up with the full impact as I landed on the ground.

That builds your confidence and up until I re-ruptured again, I didn't really have many issues or concerns around it. I was just cracking on with my sporting career.

September 2024, I was in my penultimate game of the cricket season, and I had bowled a delivery off my full run-up. Then I turned right to field the ball. As I turned right, the batter behind me kind of ran through the back of me and pushed my body weight one way, but my left foot was still stuck in the floor, which has led to a re-rupture of my ACL.

In that moment, it feels like all that hard work you've done has kind of gone.

Mr Neil Jain:

'Ben presented to me after his second injury. Unfortunately, he re-tore his ACL and tore his previous graft.

Taking more graft from him certainly carries the risks of donor site morbidity, and I felt, given that the tunnels were in the right position, a JewelACL hybrid was better for him.'

Following that, we are 11 months further down the line, and I've been back playing sport for the past four months.

I'm back to my full capacity. I managed to play the remaining 17 out of 22 games of the cricket season. So when I had my operation in November 2024, I was back playing within May.

This time round, I really noticed that I was a bit more willing to push it and be a bit more active straight away because I had the confidence from the previous one, which meant my recovery time again was slightly less.

For me, as a fast bowler, you want to be able to run in all day long. You want to be able to bat for as long as possible. As captain, you want to field; you've got to be switched on.

If I wasn't successful, then taking away my bowling, taking away my ability to turn and field quickly and stuff like that, that would really hinder, and not just hinder my performance but also kind of affect my motivation to kind of say, "Do you know what? Maybe cricket isn't the one for me. Maybe it's time to step back from it at an early age."

I've returned to playing the level of cricket I was. I've gone and stepped up, and I'm now first-team captain. I'm back bowling the same amount of overs with the same bowling action, putting the same pressure through my knee and body each time. I'm batting in the same position. There's been no kind of fundamental difference in my workload or my performance going forward.