Car crash left Freddie Flintoff 'wishing he died' in lowest moments

Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff has admitted the aftermath of his life-changing Top Gear car crash left him wishing he had died.

The former England cricket star suffered a serious accident during filming for the programme in 2022, enduring major facial injuries.

He speaks at length on the incident in new Disney+ documentary ‘Flintoff’, set to be released on Friday.

“After the accident I didn’t think I had it in me to get through,” Flintoff said.

“This sounds awful… part of me wishes I’d been killed. Part of me thinks, I wish I’d died.

“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’.

“Now I try to take the attitude that the sun will come up tomorrow and my kids will still give me a hug. I’m probably in a better place now.”

The documentary ends with its subject back involved in the sport that made his name, as head coach of England Lions and Northern Superchargers, and back in the television studio in a reboot of darts show Bullseye.

Flintoff also revealed he has regular flashbacks to the accident.

“I don’t think I’m ever going to be better… just different now. I’m getting there slowly,” he said.

His wife Rachael said: “I do think cricket saved him. It gave him a reason for being again.”

In the documentary, his surgeon Jahrad Haq, described Flintoff’s injuries as one of the five worst he has come across in 20 years, and likens the reconstruction process to a jigsaw with missing pieces.

Recalling the crash, Flintoff said: “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.

“My biggest fear was, I didn’t think I had a face. I thought my face had come off. I was frightened to death.”

The BBC “rested” Top Gear for the foreseeable future in 2023 after reaching a financial settlement with Flintoff, an agreement reportedly worth around £9 million.

The 47-year-old appears resentful about the entertainment culture he was involved in, likening it to his own injury-ravaged playing career.

“Everybody wants more. Everybody want to dig that bit deeper,” he said.

“I learned this in sport as well. All the injuries, all the injections, all the times I got sent out on a cricket field and treated like a piece of meat. That’s TV and sport. It’s quite similar, you’re just a commodity. You’re a piece of meat.”