Freddie Flintoff admits his natural cricket instincts helped him avoid possible death when he was involved in a serious car crash. The England legend has since recovered but the incident could’ve been fatal.
He was in the midst of filming for BBC TV show Top Gear in December 2022 before the Morgan Super 3 three-wheeled sports car he was driving flipped and dragged him across the tarmac of Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey.
During his peak Flintoff was among the most destructive cricketers in the game, helping England win the Ashes in 2005. That saw him named the BBC Sports Personality of the Year and the skills he used to take him to the top of the game aided him in his crash.
Flintoff was used to having less than a second to make his mind up when he was at the crease and he quickly worked out where he had to land to ensure he didn’t die, ultimately going face down and leaving himself with serious facial injuries.
He told Disney+: “You get 0.4 of a second to make your mind up, where the ball is going, what shot you are you going to play, how you are going to move your feet, and as it started going over, I looked at the ground, and I knew if I get here on this side,’ he said, pointing to the right side of his head, ‘then I break my neck. If I get hit on the temple, I am dead. The best chance is go face down.
“My head got hit, but then I got dragged out, and the car went over, and I went over the back of the car, and then pulled face down on the runway, about 50 metres underneath the car, and then it hit the grass, and then flipped back in.”
Flintoff remained in his home for the next seven months after the incident – only heading out for appointments with doctors and dentists. He eventually re-emerged into the public eye during the 2023 Ashes. Soon afterwards, he began his coaching career that has seen him take charge of England Lions.
The 47-year-old has stopped short of saying he was suicidal but admits part of him wished he had been killed in the crash rather than living and enduring the events that followed.
He said: “After the accident, I didn’t think I had it in me to get through. This sounds awful: part of me wishes I had been killed, part of me thinks ‘I wish I had died.’ I didn’t want to kill myself, don’t mistake the two things, but I was thinking ‘this would have been so much easier’.”
Flintoff has also called time on his TV career, admitting that he needed some self-preservation, which is partly responsible for him losing touch with Top Gear co-presenters Chris Harris and Paddy McGuinness.
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