England Test captain Ben Stokes is not expected to feature in the early games of the County Championship, Durham head coach Ryan Campbell has said.

The star all-rounder tore his left hamstring for the second in five months in December and underwent surgery early in the New Year.

Stokes has not featured since sustaining the reoccurrence of his injury and will not be available when Durham begin their new campaign against Nottinghamshire on Friday.

Updating on Stokes and England team-mate Brydon Carse, who is out with a toe injury, Campbell provided an update in quotes reported by BBC Sport.

pic.twitter.com/1nEmNcrnjQ

— Ben Stokes (@benstokes38) October 30, 2024

"My expectation is that it'll be zero [early-season appearances] – anything else is an added bonus," he said.

"They're coming back from serious injuries. The facts are they need to get up and running by the time the Test matches start."

England's next Test assignment is the one-off contest against Zimbabwe, starting on May 22.

The possibility of Stokes appearing for Durham before then has not been ruled out, with Campbell adding: "He's here nearly every single day working his butt off.

"The guy had hamstring surgery and was in the next day lifting weights, which I couldn't believe.

"He's such a hard-working bloke. He'll do whatever it takes to be up and running for England."