Andrew Flintoff needed he had died within the aftermath of his horror Top Gear crash and admits ‘I assumed my face had come off’ as harrowing new main points emerge – together with how his cricket instincts stored his existence

Andrew Flintoff needed he’d died within the speedy aftermath of the automobile crash horror that sparked fears he could be left with out a face.

Flintoff, 47, made the admission in a harrowing tv documentary launched by means of Disney+ on Friday, announcing: ‘After the accident, I didn’t suppose I had it in me to get via. This sounds terrible: a part of me needs I were killed, a part of me thinks “I wish I had died.” 

‘I didn’t wish to kill myself, don’t mistake the 2 issues, however I used to be pondering “this would have been so much easier.”‘

The former England captain additionally published that the incident whilst filming for BBC TV display Top Gear in December 2022 – by which the Morgan Super 3 three-wheeled sports activities automobile he was once using flipped, dragging him around the tarmac of Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey – replays over and over again like a film in his thoughts.

‘My biggest fear was I didn’t think I had a face. I thought my face had come off,’ Flintoff stated.

‘In some ways it would have been easier if I’d gone unconscious and then been unconscious for a week or two, and you wake up and the stitches are out, but I remember everything.

An image following the horrifying crash was released as part of the trailer for the upcoming Disney+ documentary

Flintoff is seen looking at the reconstructive work in a mirror as part of the documentary trailer

‘We’re most definitely doing about 40, 45 (mph). They have been simply appearing me the right way to get the automobile going sideways and the wheel got here up at the entrance. It’s a humorous factor rolling a automobile as a result of there is a level of no go back and the entirety slows down. It’s so bizarre.’

Flintoff when compared the response time concerned to his former position as a global batsman.

‘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 stated, pointing to the best aspect 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.’

Airlifted to St George’s Hospital in Tooting, Flintoff was once being operated on quickly after arrival by means of Mr Jahrad Haq, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon.

‘I was on call that day and received a phone call from the A and E consultant. A lot of the injuries we have are managed at a more junior level before escalating to the consultant, so I knew something was up,’ Mr Haq stated.

‘His injuries overall, for the past 20 years of seeing maxillofacial trauma, I’d probably put in the top five.

‘He had a mixture of hard tissue and soft tissue injuries, broken teeth, lost teeth, elements of the upper jaw bone that were also fractured and displaced.

Mr Jahrad Haq (right), an oral and maxillofacial surgeon, operated on Flintoff, who had extensive damage to both the hard and soft tissue of his face

Flintoff revealed the mental toll of the injuries sustained when filming BBC motoring show Top Gear meant he did not leave the house for between six to eight months (pictured 2022)

The former England cricket star turned TV presenter lost a significant portion of his lips

Flintoff, 47, shows off his fully healed face ahead of a new Disney + documentary

‘His soft tissue injuries were very complex. It’s very unusual that you lose soft tissue, that you lose skin, and he’d lost a really significant portion of his upper lip, the skin and some of the underlying muscle and also his lower lip.’

There have been added headaches, although. ‘These wounds were never going to be clean wounds. He’s scraped his face along the tarmac. There’s going to be grit, dirt, and the initial surgery took about five hours.

‘You’ve simply were given to get the anatomy again to the way it was once within the first position. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle, and nearly at all times the entire items are there. In Andrew’s case, they weren’t.’

The 98-minute documentary displays the graphic photographs of a blood-soaked and battered Flintoff being dropped at medical institution and of him post-op: his nostril, lips and cheeks plagued by stitches, eyes swollen and black.

Rachael Wools (pictured in 2018), who married Flintoff in 2005, stated she warned their youngsters to take a look at to not seem too surprised by means of their father’s look

The couple, pictured again in 2014, have 4 youngsters in combination and Rachael recalled telling their youngsters what to anticipate when seeing their father in medical institution for the primary time

Flintoff has needed to go through intensive surgical procedures to his enamel and face for the reason that coincidence

Recalling the primary discuss with to convenience the daddy of 4 in his medical institution mattress, Flintoff’s spouse Rachael stated: ‘I’ve never seen someone so scared in their eyes, and he just stared at me, and I just think he was looking at me to know how bad he was. So to be fair, I totally pulled myself together, and I just didn’t cry. I just said, it’s fine. You’re going to be okay. I can’t believe how amazing you look.

‘Before we got home, I did have I did call the kids, and I did say to them: you’ve simply were given to be as robust as you have ever been. Your dad does glance other in this day and age. It’s going to recover, however I don’t need you to seem surprised and horrified, as a result of that is going to knock him.’

Crippled by means of anxiousness, Flintoff remained housebound for the following seven months, best venturing out for appointments with medical doctors and dentists.

He ultimately constructed up the braveness to stand the general public once more right through the 2023 Ashes, first of all looking at incognito along long-term buddy Rob Key, the ECB’s males’s director of cricket. Soon afterwards, he introduced a training occupation with the assistance of Key that has since noticed him take price of England Lions.

Flintoff returned to cricket when he started operating with England’s speedy bowlers in 2023

 The 47-year-old, pictured out on the London Premier for the ‘Flintoff’ documentary, is a lot more assured now, having been crippled by means of anxiousness right through months when he was once housebound

‘When Andrew needed it most, cricket was there for him. Cricket saved him. It gave him a reason for being again,’ stated Rachael.

At the similar time, he has put a TV occupation at the back of him, revealing that self-preservation was once in part chargeable for him shedding contact with Top Gear co-presenters Chris Harris and Paddy McGuinness. 

He says he were given emotional giving Harris a hug at their first post-crash meet-up lately, however has now not spoken to McGuinness in any respect.

‘Part of it is for myself a little bit,’ Flintoff stated. ‘Their careers have been altered as well, so I feel, not guilty, but bad for them. Also, what happened gets dragged up enough in my own head without adding to that.’

Flintoff is to be had solely on Disney+ in the United Kingdom and Ireland from Friday, April 25.