Freddie Flintoff reveals just how bad his horrific injuries were in new clip filmed a week after his crash – as he admits he’ll never be the same again: ‘I am really struggling and I need help. Genuinely shouldn’t be here’
Freddie Flintoff has revealed the extent of his injuries after a high-speed crash on Top Gear in a new clip, and admitted he doubts he will ever be the same again.
The 46-year-old was driving a three-wheeled car on the Dunsfold Park Aerodrome test track in Surrey when it overturned and skidded across the track, sustaining serious facial injuries and broken ribs.
The former cricketer is seen with deep cuts on his face and bandages covering part of his nose in a selfie taken just two weeks after the incident in December 2022.
In a clip recorded while he was lying in bed during his recovery, the father of three tells the camera to stop “crying every two minutes.”
The cricket superstar admits he is ‘struggling’ to come to terms with the difficult road to recovery he faces and feels he ‘shouldn’t really be here’ after being airlifted to hospital.
New photos reveal injuries Freddie Flintoff sustained in crash while filming Top Gear in December 2022
The Top Gear star can be seen lying in a bed with deep gashes on his face and a bandage covering part of his nose
The pictures and video of his recovery were shown on a new BBC programme tonight, 20 months after the crash involving a £43,000 Morgan Super 3 that nearly cost him his life.
Flintoff, who reportedly reached a £9m settlement with the BBC over the crash, which was paid for by the broadcaster’s commercial arm, subsequently quit Top Gear and the channel has since been shut down.
The cricketer-turned-presenter has rarely been seen in public since the incident, after his devoted wife Rachael, 42, reportedly ‘begged’ him to take time off work and take time to recover.
However, the broadcaster, who apologised for his injuries in March 2023, brought him back for the new series of Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams, in which he goes on a cricket tour to India with a group of youngsters.
In the show, Flintoff emotionally reveals the aftermath of the incident, which will follow him ‘for the rest of his life’, and admits that he suffers from nightmares and flashbacks to the fateful day.
He tells the camera: ‘A week and a half after my accident. I really shouldn’t be here with what happened.
“It’s going to be a long road back and I’m just getting started and I’m already struggling and I need help. I really do.”
He added: ‘I’m not the best at asking for it. I need to stop crying every two minutes. I’m looking forward to seeing the boys and being with them. I really am.’
Flintoff tells the program: “You have to look at it positively: I’m still here. I have another chance and I’m going to try. I see that as what it is – a second try.”
When one of the young cricketers on tour with him asks him if he is 100 per cent now, he replies: ‘Not really. I don’t know if I will be again, to be honest. I am better than I was.’
He adds, “I don’t know what’s better. I am who I am now. I’m different than I was. It’s something I’ll probably have to deal with for the rest of my life. So… better? No, different.”
The former cricketer has spoken openly about his nightmares and flashbacks to the crash
Flintoff left Top Gear and reached a £9 million settlement with the BBC after the crash. Pictured: Flintoff (left) with his Top Gear co-hosts Paddy McGuinness (centre) and Chris Harris (right)
Flintoff was test driving a three-wheeled Morgan Spencer 3 when it overturned on the Top Gear race track
Since the incident, Flintoff has rarely been seen in public, with most of his appearances being at cricket matches. Pictured: Flintoff at Headingly in Leeds ahead of tonight’s The Hundred men’s match between Northern Superchargers, of which he is head coach, and London Spirit
England coach Freddie Flintoff during a nets session at Headingley, Leeds on May 21
In the new series, which sees him take a group of youngsters on a cricket tour to India, he admits he may need to ‘get away for a bit’ during his trip and ‘go to his room and have a cry’.
In a segment of the programme, filmed seven months after the accident, it is revealed that he has undergone a number of operations. But the programme explains that apart from hospital appointments, Flintoff has rarely left the house.
He tells the show: “I thought I could just shake it off. I wanted to shake it off and say ‘I’m fine,’ but I’m not. It’s a lot harder than I thought. As much as I wanted to get out there and do things, I just couldn’t.”
In the programme, the star tells his friend and former Lancashire team-mate Kyle Hogg how the thought of taking the youngsters on a cricket trip has kept him going during tough times.
He tells him, ‘I think about it all the time and I think about going and how good it would be.
“I rewind and think, ‘Well, am I…?’ I barely leave the house. I have to get on a plane, I’m going away for two and a half weeks.
“But some of those guys have had a hard life. You have to try to put it into perspective. And I feel guilty that I can’t.
‘I don’t want to sit here and feel sorry for myself and I don’t want to feel sorry for myself. But it’s going to be sitting here for seven months, really, and then going to India for two and a half weeks.
‘Wherever I go now, I have a full face mask and glasses on. I can’t do that.’
Freddie admits how he has to move on with his life after the accident: ‘As much as I want to get out and do things… I just can’t.’
I’m not sure if I ever will. [ever feel better] again, to be honest. I’m better than I was.
“I don’t know what’s better. I am who I am now, I’m different than I was, that’s something I have to deal with for the rest of my life. Better, no, different.”
Freddie Flintoff pictured in Calcutta during his programme Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams
England coach Freddie Flintoff during a nets session at Headingley, Leeds on May 21
Freddie Flintoff on a motorized tricycle while filming a series of Top Gear
He was driving an open-top car when the vehicle overturned at Dunsfold Park Aerodrome in Surrey in December 2022 as part of filming for Top Gear
But it is the teenage cricket team he founded in his hometown of Preston that gives him the motivation to venture out into the world again.
In emotional scenes aired in the series, one of the boys tells him, “I missed you.”
Once the team is in Kolkata, India, Freddie says he will ‘reach out to the cricket world to help me’.
He says, ‘Cricket is like a religion in India. It’s just everywhere you go. And Kolkata is different from other places I’ve been.
‘For me, Kolkata is authentic India. As I spent more time there, my affinity and connection with the place grew. We all learned so much there and it had a huge impact on our lives.
“I’ve been to some amazing places, like Victoria Falls – and I see it and think, ‘That’s fine. That’s enough.’ But Kolkata, the more time I spent there, the more I enjoyed it and it really grew on me and got under my skin.
“Viewers can expect everything! Seeing India, tears, joy, life lessons, hope, ambition, passion, victories, losses and lots of heat. I think it will be unlike anything you’ve ever seen before, from start to finish. I really do.”
He adds: ‘When I am busy with cricket, I forget everything, I lose myself in the game.
“I feel like I’ve been more vulnerable than I’ve ever been in my life in the last 12 months.”
Speaking about the programme, the cricketer said that the eventual trip to India with the group of youngsters had been a positive experience.
He told reporters: “I think I’ve found a sense of confidence again, which has been a bit lacking lately.”
Flintoff added: ‘I always wanted to get back into it, I shouldn’t really say this in this room, but I fell into a TV trap and did TV, this, that and the other.
‘Now, looking ahead, I would of course like to do more coaching, I don’t know in what entity or where. I am quite open to it and then also a little bit of TV, keep it up.’
Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams On Tour airs tonight at 9pm on BBC1 and is available on iPlayer.