Andrew Flintoff has described his return to cricket as a coach as “the one thing that saved me” after the mental and physical trauma caused by a car accident while filming Top Gear in December 2022. In a new Disney+ documentary, the former England all-rounder speaks for the first time about the crash and its aftermath.
Flintoff, 47, sustained serious facial injuries when a three-wheeled open-topped car overturned at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey. He recalls: “I remember everything about it… I used to play cricket, and if you bat you get point four of a second to make your mind up… As it started going over, I looked at the ground and I knew if I get hit on the side, I’m going to break my neck. If I get hit on the temple I’m dead. My best chance is go face down.”
After the accident, Flintoff refused to leave his house for months except for medical appointments. He says: “After the accident I didn’t think I had it in me to get through… part of me thinks I wish I had died. I wasn’t wishing, I was thinking: that would have been so much easier.” The surgeon who operated on him described his injuries as among the worst maxillofacial trauma he had seen in 20 years.
Flintoff’s return to cricket, initially running sessions for the England men’s team and later as coach of England Lions and the Northern Superchargers, proved pivotal. “If one thing’s come out of it which is positive it’s being back in cricket… It’s probably the one thing that saved me,” he said. He added that being in a dressing room allows him to “forget” the trauma.
Flintoff also criticised the culture of risk-taking in television, comparing it to sport. “Everyone wants that thing that nobody’s seen before… Everybody wants a near-miss because that’ll get viewers… I should have been cleverer on this because I learned this in sport as well… You’re just a commodity. You’re just a piece of meat.” He reached a settlement with BBC Studios in 2023, reportedly worth £9 million, and the BBC subsequently cancelled Top Gear.
