London, April 16 -- England skipper Ben Stokes is eyeing a return to competitive cricket in May and spoke about his battle with the injury he sustained on his cheekbone, saying that he was lucky to get out of it and it being "couple of inches one way or the other" could have killed him.

Having copped a blow during a training session in February, Stokes has conceded he was lucky the nature of his injury was not too serious. So far, Stokes has yet to feature in the County Championship for Durham in preparation for the home Test summer starting with the New Zealand series in June.

"Pretty nasty but, funnily, probably the best result of a bad situation, to be honest," Stokes said in an interview with the ECB.

"I copped one straight in the ...