Michail Antonio does not know how he crashed his car into the tree. All he knows is that he did.
“The police came and when they found me I was in between the two seats. I wasn’t actually in the driver’s seat,” he recalls.
“They said it looked like I was trying to climb out of the window, but because my leg was so badly broken the pain probably stopped me from being able to get out.”
The first pictures of his crumpled Ferrari, which struck a tree in Epping Forest on a stormy Saturday in early December, were shared on social media and left people questioning whether Antonio was still alive.
The incident left West Ham’s record Premier League goalscorer in hospital for more than three weeks with a broken leg – and facing a gruelling journey back to fitness.
Today, Antonio insists he will play again at the highest level, and feels he has been given “another chance at life” after he was “close to dying”.
The next big question – can you be the Antonio of before? “Yes, 100%. I will play again,” he replies.
But there was one moment where he doubted it. Two weeks ago, his physiotherapists asked if he had career-ending injury insurance. “I didn’t sleep a wink that night,” he says, with a smile and shake of his head.
Antonio’s road to recovery will be a relentless journey requiring countless hours in the gym, with running the next step in his pursuit of fitness.
“That’s what I am focused on and why I am working six days a week. I’ve always been positive from this situation. It’s a horrendous accident, and it’s a massive injury,” he says.
Credit: bbc.com
