Ben Stokes has revealed that one of his first acts on returning as England captain was to apologise to his teammates after missing the last Test following a curfew breach during a nightclub incident. Stokes said he had to be "big enough and man enough" to take responsibility for his actions and acknowledge the impact they had on others.

"Of course [I apologised]. That was one of the first things I had to do as a captain," Stokes said ahead of the third and final Test against New Zealand at Trent Bridge.

"You look at the situation and it affects more than just myself. It affected Joe Root, the squad, the people outside the playing environment. It no doubt had an effect on lads who were making their debut. That should have been all about them.

"Unfortunately a situation outside of their control took precedence over their big days, making their debut for England in Test cricket. It would be stupid and naive of me not to acknowledge and address that.

"It's all well, everything being fine and dandy when it's all going well, but you need to take responsibility for things. You need to be big enough and man enough to take that upon your shoulders, and look everyone who it has affected in the eye and apologise the way you need to apologise. That is something that I did."

Stokes said he addressed the squad on his return, accepting responsibility for recent events before shifting the group's focus to a crucial series-deciding Test at Trent Bridge.

"Yesterday, the important thing for me as captain of the team was making sure that I was letting the lads know that I am back properly as the captain of this team. I did need to obviously say a few things and acknowledge a few things to the team, and the team only, and I feel like I voiced those quite well to everyone.

"I feel I've also let them know where my concentration is and it is thoroughly on what we need to do this week. Everyone in the dressing-room is fully aware of the responsibilities as players who got the call-up this week and I'm fully aware of the responsibilities of me as captain to lead this team in a pretty important game.

"Yes, we didn't get the result we wanted last week, but we can't change that. What we can effect and decide on is how we go about this week. We're desperate to get the results, I'm desperate to be the result. I think I've made a pretty good effort at making sure that the most important people know that, which is the team."

England endured a difficult week in Stokes' absence, suffering a 253-run defeat while their captain represented Durham in a bid to regain match fitness. Joe Root, whom Stokes had succeeded as captain, stepped in to lead an inexperienced side and later found himself facing criticism for some of England's tactical decisions.

"As his friend, it was hard to see the reaction that he got, and for me, that's something that hurt me because I'm very close with Joe," Stokes said. "As I said, when something happens, it is obviously going to affect someone else, and seeing the effect that it had on Joe from public opinion was hard to see and read from my point of view, if that makes sense.

"That shouldn't take away the courage that Joe showed in taking that on that week. It would have been very, very easy for him to have said, 'Nah, I don't need this.' But yet again, he put the team first as he's done on multiple occasions.

"It was tough to watch from a few different angles, watching the guys lose and go through the emotions of losing the Test match. It's never nice because I know what that feels like, losing. But then seeing some of the reaction that Joe undeservedly got was something that hurts you, not only as a colleague but as a friend."

Stokes also admitted this was the most scrutiny he and head coach Brendon McCullum had faced since taking charge of the Test side.

"Playing for your country comes with pressure regardless," he said. "Has the pressure on this team ramped up? Well, this is definitely the highest amount of pressure we've been under since me and Baz became coach and captain. That's fine. It's how you deal with it that proves if you're a good leader or not."