Andrew Flintoff, a key member of England’s 2005 Ashes-winning side against Australia, admitted he feared the crash had damaged him beyond repair. Former England captain Andrew Flintoff said it would have been “much easier” for him had he been “killed” in the near-fatal car accident close to three years ago. Flintoff revealed he thought his “face had come off during the horrific car crash that left him with serious injuries and broken ribs while filming for the television programme Top Gear in 2022.
The 47-year-old has spoken at length about the sickening crash in a new Disney documentary ‘Flintoff’, which premieres on Friday.Flintoff, a key member of England’s 2005 Ashes-winning side against Australia, admitted he feared the crash had damaged him beyond repair. “After the accident, I didn’t think I had it in me to get through. This sounds awful, part of me wishes I’d been killed. Part of me thinks, I wish I’d died,” he said.
“I didn’t want to kill myself. I wouldn’t mistake the two things. I was not wishing, I was just thinking, ‘this would have been so much easier’.” Flintoff was driving a Morgan Super 3 three-wheeled sports car when it overturned. The open-topped car can hit 130 mph (209 km/h) and the cricketer wasn’t wearing a helmet when it flipped over.
Flintoff’s surgeon, Jahrad Haq, describes the former England captain’s injuries as among the five worst he has encountered in 20 years and likens the reconstruction process to a jigsaw with missing pieces. “I remember my head got hit, I got dragged out. I went over the back of the car and it pulled my face down on the runway, about 50 metres, underneath the car,” Flintoff said.b”My biggest fear was, I didn’t think I had a face. I thought my face had come off. I was frightened to death.”
Flintoff struggled to come out of bedroom for days
Rated as one of England’s best-ever all-rounders, Flintoff struggled to come out of the bedroom for days after the car crash, which left him with mental and physical bruises. The 47-year-old ex-England all-rounder said it took him “10 goes to leave my bedroom” due to anxiety on his first morning as an assistant coach with the national team in 2023.
“That day in Cardiff, it took me 10 goes to leave my hotel bedroom. I couldn’t get out of the room,” he told The Times in an interview with former England captain Mike Atherton. “I was so anxious and worried. I eventually went down to breakfast; sat down and chatted with Reece Topley and then Jos Buttler.
