‘I’m different to what I was’: Freddie Flintoff tells of life after horrific accident | Factual TV

Greater than 18 months since a horrific accident on the set of High Gear, Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff has revealed his struggles with anxiousness, nightmares and flashbacks after struggling life-changing accidents.

Flintoff was driving an open-topped three-wheel automotive when it flipped and slid alongside the observe at Surrey’s Dunsfold aerodome in December 2022. He was airlifted to hospital after struggling facial accidents and damaged ribs.

In a brand new BBC present, Freddie Flintoff’s Area of Desires on Tour, the 46-year-old speaks about how he was “crying each two minutes” and left his dwelling just for medical appointments within the seven months after the crash in a Morgan Tremendous 3.

Within the docuseries, a sequel to 2022’s Freddie Flintoff’s Area of Desires, Flintoff takes a gaggle of younger individuals from his dwelling city of Preston on a cricketing tour of India – a visit that needed to be postponed after the star’s crash.

The primary episode exhibits Flintoff in what seems to be a hospital mattress speaking in regards to the crash. “I genuinely shouldn’t be right here with what occurred,” he says. “This might be a protracted street again and I’ve solely simply began. I’m caught already. I need assistance, and I realise I’m not the perfect at asking for it. I have to cease crying each two minutes.”

He provides: “I’ve bought to take a look at the positives, haven’t I? I’m nonetheless right here, I’ve bought one other probability, I’ve bought to go at it. I’m seeing that as how it’s, a second go. I’m actually wanting ahead to seeing the lads once more and being round them, I actually am.”

Seven months later, after a number of operations for facial accidents, the movie exhibits Flintoff reflecting additional on the psychological and bodily impacts of the crash.

“I believed I may simply shake it off … however it’s not been a case of that. It’s been so much more durable than I believed. As a lot as I’ve needed to exit and do issues, I’ve simply not been capable of.

“I used to be full of tension. I had nightmares, I had flashbacks. It’s been so exhausting to deal with. However a few of these lads have had a tricky life. You’ve bought to try to put it into perspective and I really feel responsible I can’t try this. I don’t need to sit right here and really feel sorry for myself, I don’t need sympathy.”

The BBC introduced it had “rested” High Gear, which had been working since 2002, for the foreseeable future after Flintoff’s accident and paid £9m in compensation to him.

The previous Lancashire all-round cricketer has since made a gradual return to the general public eye, rejoining England’s backroom workers for his or her T20 sequence in opposition to the West Indies earlier this yr, and as head coach of the Northern Superchargers within the Hundred.

Within the episode, his former Lancashire teammate Kyle Hogg, who helps to teach the workforce, may be seen telling the gamers about Flintoff’s crash, and that their journey to India might be postponed.

However whereas Flintoff shut himself away for some months to recuperate, his loyalty to the workforce was what ultimately motivated him to get on the market once more. He’s later seen reuniting with the workforce and asking in the event that they nonetheless need to go to India.

It was an emotional reunion. “I missed you,” one of many boys tells him, whereas one other asks if he’s “feeling 100%”.

“Probably not,” Flintoff replies. “I’m undecided I ever will once more, to be trustworthy. I’m higher than I used to be. I don’t know what utterly higher is. I’m what I’m now, I’m completely different to what I used to be, that’s one thing I’ll need to cope with for the remainder of my life. Higher, no. Totally different.”

As soon as the workforce is in India, Flintoff explains that he feels “like a father to the lads”, and says cricket helps him to recuperate from his crash. “Once I’m round cricket, I appear to neglect all the things, I lose myself within the sport,” he says.

“I really feel like I’ve been extra susceptible than I ever have in my life up to now 12 months, so I’m reaching out to cricket I suppose once more, to assist me.”