Freddie Flintoff opens up about his accidents in heartbreaking new clip
Freddie Flintoff has revealed the extent of the horrific injuries he sustained in a high-speed Top Gear crash and admitted he doubts he’ll ever be the same again in a new clip.
The 46-year-old had been driving a three-wheeled car on the test track at Dunsfold Park Aerodrome in Surrey when it flipped and slipped along the track, leaving him with severe facial injuries and broken ribs.
The former cricketer can be seen with deep wounds on his face and bandages covering part of his nose in a selfie taken just two weeks after the incident in December 2022.
In one clip taken as he lies on a bed during his recovery, the father-of-three tells the camera he needs to stop ‘crying every two minutes’.
The cricket superstar admits he is ‘struggling’ to come to terms with the hard road to recovery he needs to go through and believes he ‘genuinely shouldn’t be here’ after being airlifted to hospital.
New photos reveal the injuries sustained by Freddie Flintoff in a crash while filming Top Gear in December 2022
The Top Gear star can be seen lying in a bed with deep wounds on his face and a bandage covering part of his nose
The photos and video of his recovery were shown on a new BBC programme tonight, 20 months on from the crash in a £43,000 Morgan Super 3 that came close to claiming his life.
Flintoff, who reportedly reached a £9million settlement with the BBC over the crash which was paid for by the broadcaster’s commercial arm, quit Top Gear in the aftermath and it has since been put on hiatus.
The cricketer-turned-broadcaster has been rarely seen in public since the incident, after his devoted wife Rachael, 42, reportedly ‘begged’ him to stay off work and take time to recover.
However, the broadcaster, which apologised to him in March 2023 for his injuries, brought him back for the new series of Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams, which sees him take a group of youngsters on a cricket tour to India.
In the show Flintoff emotionally reveals the consequences of the incident with follow him ‘for the rest of my life’ and admits he has to deal with nightmares and flashbacks to the fateful day.
He tells the camera: ‘Week-and-a-half after my accident. Genuinely, should not be here with what happened.
‘It’s going to be a long road back and I’ve only just started and I am struggling already and I need help. I really am.’
He added: ‘I’m not the best at asking for it. I need to stop crying every two minutes. I am looking forward to seeing the lads and being around them. I really am.’
Flintoff tells the programme: ‘Got to look on the positive: I’m still here. I’ve got another chance and I’ve got a go at it. I am seeing that as how it is – a second go.’
When one of the young cricketers on the tour with him asks him if he is 100 per cent now, he replies: ‘Not really. I don’t know if I will again to be honest. I am better than I was.’
He adds: ‘I don’t know what completely better is. I am what I am now. I’m different to what I was. It’s something I will probably have to deal with for the rest of my life. So…better? No, different.’
The former cricket player has opened up about suffering from nightmares and flashbacks to the crash
Flintoff quit Top Gear and reached a £9million settlement with the BBC following the crash. Pictured: Flintoff (left) with his Top Gear co-hosts Paddy McGuinness (centre) and Chris Harris (right)
Flintoff had been test driving a three-wheel Morgan Spencer 3 when it flipped over on the Top Gear race track
Since the incident Flintoff has been rarely seen in public, with most of his appearances coming at cricket matches. Pictured: Flintoff at Headingly in Leeds for tonight’s The Hundred men’s match between Northern Superchargers, who he is head coach of, and London Spirit
England coach Freddie Flintoff during a nets session at Headingley, Leeds on May 21
During the new series, in which he takes a group of youngsters on a cricket tour to India, he admits that while away he may need to ‘take myself off’ to ‘go cry in my room’.
In one part of the programme, filmed seven months after the accident, it is revealed he has had a number of operations. But the programme explains that apart from hospital appointments Flintoff has rarely been leaving the house.
He tells the show: ‘I thought I could just shake it off. I wanted to shake it off and say ‘I’m alright’ but it’s not been a case of that. It’s been a lot harder than I thought. As much as I wanted to go out and do things, I’ve just not been able to.’
In the programme the star tells his friend, former Lancashire teammate Kyle Hogg, that the thought of taking the youngsters on the cricket trip has kept him going during the 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 then, thinking: ‘Well am I…?’ I don’t leave the house hardly. Got to get on a plane, going to be away for two and a half weeks.
‘But some of them lads have had a tough life You’ve got to try and put into perspective. And I feel guilty I can’t do that.
‘I don’t want to sit here and feel sorry for myself and I don’t want sympathy. But it’s going from being in here for seven months, really, and then going to India for two-and-a-half weeks.
‘Everywhere I go at the minute, I’ve got a full face-mask and glasses on. I can’t do that.’
Speaking about how to go on with life after the accident, Freddie admits: ‘As much as I want to go out and do things… I’ve just not been able to.
‘I’m not sure I ever will [ever feel better] again, to be honest. I’m better than I was.
‘I don’t know what completely better is. I am what I am now, I’m different to what I was, that’s something I’ll 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 motorised trike while filming a series of Top Gear
He was driving an open-topped car when the vehicle flipped over at Dunsfold Park Aerodrome in Surrey in December 2022 as part of filming for Top Gear
But it is the teenage cricket team he created from his hometown of Preston who give him the motivation to get out into the world again.
In emotional scenes set to air on the show, one of the boys tells him: ‘I missed you’.
Once the team is in Kolkata in India, Freddie says he is ‘reaching out to cricket to help me’.
He says: ‘Cricket is like a religion in India. It’s just everywhere you go. And Kolkata is different to other places I’ve been to.
‘To me, Kolkata is authentic India and the more time I spent there, the more I grew an affinity and a connection to the place because we all learnt so much and it’s had such an impact on all of our lives.
‘I’ve been to some amazing places like Victoria Falls – and I see it and I think, ‘That’s all right. That’ll do.’ 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, wins, losses and a lot 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’m around cricket, I seem to forget everything, I lose myself in the game.
‘I feel like I’ve been more vulnerable than I ever have in my life in the past 12 months.’
During a discussion about the programme, the cricketer reflected on how the eventual trip to India with the group of youngsters turned out to be a positive experience.
He told journalists: ‘I suppose I found a confidence out there again, which had been lacking a little bit in recent times.’
Flintoff added: ‘I always wanted to get back in it, I probably shouldn’t say it in this room, but I fell into a TV trap and doing TV, this, that and the other.
‘Now, moving forward, obviously I would love to do more coaching, I don’t know in what entity or where. I am quite open-minded about it all and then a little bit of TV as well, carry on with this.’
Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams On Tour aired on BBC1 at 9pm tonight and is available on iPlayer.
