Freddie Flintoff has revealed he couldn’t leave the house for eight months after his terrifying Top Gear accident.
The 46-year-old sportsman was involved in a near-fatal incident that left him with significant facial injuries and broken ribs while filming the motoring show in December 2022.
Britain’s most renowned cricketer subsequently developed anxiety over leaving his house and almost entirely stepped away from public life following the crash.
Speaking to Jonathan Ross on his ITV chat show, Flintoff said of the aftermath: “The only times I was leaving the house was for medical appointments and surgeries.
“I was struggling with crippling anxiety. I had to have about five or six goes at leaving the room – had to have a chat with myself in the mirror.
“I’d not shown myself without a face mask to anyone. It was like starting again,” he added.
Flintoff said that he eventually travelled to London while wearing a bucket hat, glasses, and a mask. In the capital, he was spotted by a friend, who said: “F*** me – it’s the invisible man.”
The cricketer has been driving a Morgan Super 3 three-wheeled sports car when it flipped over and crashed off of the Top Gear test track in 2022.
The crash led the BBC to suspend production for the “foreseeable future”, deeming it inappropriate to continue. He received £9m in compensation as a result of his injuries.
Flintoff returned to screens last year with a BBC series titled Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams on Tour, in which he opened up about that crash. He revealed that he still suffers nightmares and flashbacks.
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Speaking in Field of Dreams, he said: “I don’t want to sit and feel sorry for myself. I don’t want sympathy. I’m struggling with my anxiety, I have nightmares, I have flashbacks – it’s been so hard to cope. But I’m thinking if I don’t do something, I’ll never go. I’ve got to get on with it.”
This month, Flintoff will explore the ramifications of his accident in a new Disney+ documentary, Flintoff, which will premiere in the UK and Ireland on 25 April.
“I’ve lived under [the] radar for seven months,” Flintoff said in the trailer. “One of the real frustrations was the speculation – that’s why I’m doing this now. What actually happened.”
Speaking about his “life-altering” injuries, the cricketer said: “I’m not saying I’m embracing them, but I’m not trying to hide my scars.”
He added: “It’s almost like a reset. I’m trying to find out what I am now. I’ve always seemed to be able to flick a switch, I’ve got to find that switch again.”
The Jonathan Ross Show airs on ITV on Saturdays at 9.20pm
