Ben Stokes faces ‘mental breakdown’ and career crossroads in documentary

Ben Stokes believes the public will see a different side to him in a new documentary where he comes face to face with “mental breakdown” and is driven to the brink of abandoning the career that made him a star.

The England Test captain attended a preview screening of Ben Stokes: Phoenix from the Ashes in London on Monday, four days before it drops for the wider public on Prime Video.

By the time it hits the streaming service he will be fully focused on the red ball rather than the red carpet, leading his side’s charge against South Africa at Old Trafford, but the film makes it clear how close he came to walking away.

While there are stirring sequences from his golden summer of 2019, when he steered England to World Cup glory at Lord’s and conjured an all-time Ashes classic at Headingley, the narrative is shaped by crisis and trauma.

Stokes confronts his 2017 arrest in Bristol, the subsequent trial and eventual acquittal on charges of affray more fully than ever before, openly resentful about a lack of support from some in the England hierarchy and pondering if he was “playing for the wrong people”. He also offers a touching front-row seat to his final days with father Ged, who died in 2020 of brain cancer during the course of filming.

When Stokes began to struggle with anxiety and panic attacks, ultimately stepping away from the sport to prioritise his mental health, production might easily have halted entirely. But instead, the cameras keep rolling and he appears, looking gaunt and fretful, during a stark interview segment with Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes.

England's Ben Foakes is bowled by South Africa's Anrich Nortje on the first day of the 1st Test at Lord's on August 17, 2022. Getty

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