Andrew Flintoff’s former England team-mate Steve Harmison has revealed he ‘couldn’t stop crying’ after seeing the extensive facial injuries the star suffered in his horror car crash.
Flintoff, a former England captain, suffered serious injuries when filming for the BBC TV show Top Gear in December 2022.
The cricket legend turned presenter had been driving a Morgan Super 3 three-wheeled sports car, which flipped and dragged him across the tarmac of Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey.
Flintoff, 47, admitted in a harrowing television documentary to be released by Disney+ on Friday that he had wished he had died in the immediate aftermath of the crash.
He revealed his biggest fear was that he ‘didn’t think I had a face’, stating he thought his face ‘had come off’ in the horror crash.
The 98-minute documentary shows the graphic images of a blood-soaked and battered Flintoff being delivered to hospital and of him post-op: his nose, lips and cheeks littered with stitches, eyes swollen and black.
Freddie Flintoff has spoken in gruesome detail about the extent of his injuries from the crash suffered while filming Top Gear that almost took his life in 2022
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)
Flintoff’s former England team-mate Steve Harmison, left, admitted he ‘couldn’t stop crying’ after he had been shown pictures of the star’s injuries prior to his surgery
Harmison, who was part of England’s legendary 2005 Ashes triumph with Flintoff, admitted his former team-mate’s admission was ‘heartbreaking’.
Speaking on talkSPORT, former fast bowler Harmison revealed he had seen pictures of Flintoff’s injuries before he underwent surgery and was unable to stop crying.
‘When he said what he said there, that was heartbreaking. It’s heartbreaking for me who has gone through so much with him,’ Harmison said.
‘I first met Andrew in 1996. We both retired from England in the same game in 2009 and at the time we shared a room together.
‘It was a difficult time for him and for Rachael and the kids.
‘Andrew was always image conscious, I saw some of the pictures before he went into surgery.
‘When he sent them to me, I didn’t stop crying for a long, long time.
‘He’s lucky to be still with us. He’s lucky he’s been patched up and they’ve done a wonderful job and his confidence is back and it’s great to see him back in cricket.’
An image following the horrifying crash was released as part of the trailer for the upcoming Disney+ documentary
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
The former England cricket star turned TV presenter lost a significant portion of his lips
Flintoff is seen looking at the reconstructive work in a mirror as part of the documentary trailer
Following the accident, Flintoff had been airlifted to St George’s Hospital in Tooting, and was operated on soon after arrival by 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 said on the documentary.
‘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.
‘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 were added complications, though. ‘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 just got to get the anatomy back to how it was in the first place. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle, and almost always all the pieces are there. In Andrew’s case, they weren’t.’
Crippled by anxiety, Flintoff remained housebound for the next seven months, only venturing out for appointments with doctors and dentists.
Flintoff, 47, shows off his fully healed face ahead of a new Disney + documentary
Rachael Wools (pictured in 2018), who married Flintoff in 2005, said she warned their children to try not to appear too shocked by their father’s appearance
Flintoff has had to undergo extensive surgeries to his teeth and face since the accident
Flintoff returned to cricket when he began working with England’s fast bowlers in 2023
The 47-year-old, pictured out at the London Premier for the ‘Flintoff’ documentary, is much more confident now, having been crippled by anxiety during months when he was housebound
He eventually built up the courage to face the public again during the 2023 Ashes, initially watching incognito alongside long-term friend Rob Key, the ECB’s men’s director of cricket.
Soon afterwards, he launched a coaching career with the help of Key that has since seen him take charge of England Lions.
‘When Andrew needed it most, cricket was there for him. Cricket saved him. It gave him a reason for being again,’ said Flintoff’s wife Rachael.
Flintoff received a £9m payout from the BBC following the crash, with the star having since criticised the corporation for treating him ‘like a piece of meat’ on Top Gear in a bid to attract more TV viewers.
