
'You are my heroes' - Antonio meets people who saved his life
Content warning: This article contains discussion around suicide and depression
"Meeting these people who saved my life has been very humbling."West Ham striker Michail Antonio's near-death experience has changed him, compelling him to engage with a recovery process containing mental and physical obstacles.The 35-year-old was involved in a car crash almost six months ago that resulted in him spending over three weeks in hospital with a broken leg, facing a gruelling journey back to fitness.He is now up and walking, continuing his rehabilitation programme, after shattering a thigh bone when his Ferrari skidded off the road and struck a tree in Epping Forest.The Jamaica international had been on his way home from training.Antonio is looking back in an effort to move forward. He spent time with BBC One's Morning Live, retracing moments that not only threatened his career but his life, and met those who responded to emergency calls on 7 December."I want to say thank you," he told Essex and Herts Air Ambulance paramedics Rob Moon and Dr James Moloney, "because obviously I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you guys."You saved my life, so you guys are basically my heroes."
'We immediately knew who you were'
Antonio, who previously explained he has no memory of the accident, crashed and was trapped in his car. He was freed by crew from Essex County Fire and Rescue Service who left him in the care of ambulance staff.West Ham, in an initial announcement about the crash, said their "thoughts and prayers" were with Antonio.The seriousness of the accident is not lost on the former Nottingham Forest player.He said of the paramedics: "I don't remember their faces at all. It's crazy because of how important you guys were to me."Moon explained how he and Dr Moloney knew who they were treating: "There was one clue - there was a West Ham shirt in the passenger seat with Antonio on it."Antonio asked if he was speaking after the incident, and Moloney told him: "Yes, you were incredibly repetitive, but that happens when people bump their head."We kept asking about your football, who your manager was, whether you are enjoying your football. From our point of view, you were talking which was really reassuring for us."The paramedics explained Antonio was discovered on the back seat of the car and "quickly assessed" to have had fractured his femur.He was given pain relief, strapped to a board and put in an ambulance to shield him from the cold and rain.The crash came as Storm Darragh battered the UK.Meetings with paramedics are offered after life-threatening incidents to help patients rationalise what happened to them.Antonio was able to ask questions, including querying whether he was taken to hospital by air ambulance.Moloney clarified: "Whenever we can, we fly to hospital because it is quicker, but on the day the pilot quite rightly said no [because of the storm]."Antonio was driven to the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel.In a previous interview with Morning Live in March, Antonio said: "I've always been a fan of sports cars, but I can't lie to you, sports cars are not my friends. So right now, I have a Mercedes people carrier and my brother is my driver."For now, anyway, I'm staying far away from sports cars."
'Family probably experienced it more than I did'
Antonio also met Trish Burton, a member of the patient and family team for the air ambulance, and told her how his loved ones "probably experienced the incident more than I did"."They've gone to the hospital, they've come to see me, they've seen how I was. I don't remember my face being cut or anything... and going down for surgery the next day, I don't remember doing that," Antonio said."But they were all in the hospital, they have those memories, they lived it whereas I didn't live it as much as them."Antonio has previously explained he "almost wasn't there" for his children and how the crash affected his 13-year-old eldest in particular.
Antonio talks trauma with Carlisle
Antonio said earlier this year it was "horrendous" for him to see a change of manager at West Ham during his lay-off, as Graham Potter replaced Julen Lopetegui.His contract expires in June and because of injury he has had no opportunity to impress Potter on the pitch, which Antonio said has affected his mental health.Antonio has been a public advocate for therapy since talking to the High Performance Podcast in May 2024. Past counselling sessions have helped to equip him for his latest setback.Antonio met with former Leeds, QPR and Burnley defender Clarke Carlisle, who explained how a serious knee injury in 2001 led him to alcoholism and how he made three suicide attempts between 2003 and 2017.Carlisle said: "The first time when adverse mental health came into my consciousness was in 2003 because I went into alcohol rehab. It is interesting timing because I got a knee injury in 2001 at QPR, which kept me out for two years."I was told I was going to walk with a stick and never play again at 21 after I had just broken into the England Under-21s."Even though that had happened in my life, and the club knew about it, we didn't treat it like a mental health thing that needed addressing. I didn't do anything about it until 2010 until I was officially diagnosed with depression."It took two further suicide attempts in 2014 and 2017 for me to actually take action on my mental health."Carlisle said he had been raised with the message that "you do not talk about our business outside this house".He added: "I didn't want to engage with any of the resources out there but that's changing now."Antonio has previously explained he used to "push down" his emotions and could not celebrate West Ham's Uefa Conference League success in 2023 because of his mental health struggles."When I was talking to Clarke I definitely identified with the culture side of things, not to put your business out to the world," Antonio said."I definitely could feel what he was saying because that's what I had to experience when I was younger."
Visit BBC Action Line for more information on issues raised in this article
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
The man with the most important job in Scottish rugby right now is essentially phoning it in from Bondi Beach, writes Calum Crowe
Franco Smith is not a man known for wild displays of emotion. Generally speaking, the Glasgow Warriors head coach usually wears a facial expression that would turn Medusa to stone. But there was a raw sense of candour in Smith's voice when he spoke to journalists in the aftermath of Glasgow's defeat to Leinster in the URC semi-finals last weekend.


Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Sam Thompson and Louis Tomlinson set for awkward encounter THIS weekend at Soccer Aid - three months after it was revealed One Direction star was dating his ex Zara McDermott
Sam Thompson is set for an awkward encounter with Louis Tomlinson at Soccer Aid this Sunday - three months after the One Direction singer started dating Sam's ex Zara McDermott. The men will be on the same England team for Unicef - the same charity Sam completed a 260-mile five-day long marathon for on Friday. And while Sam has insisted there are 'no hard feelings', the encounter is bound to sting a little. Sam, 32, and former Love Islander Zara, 28, confirmed they had ended their relationship in January after more than five years together. Zara moved on pretty quickly with singer Louis, 33, with the smitten couple appearing inseparable since their romance was made public in March. They have enjoyed a loved-up getaway to Costa Rica together after Louis flew his new flame out to the island first-class. Meanwhile I'm A Celeb winner Sam has moved on with Love Island beauty Samie Eilshi, 25. After their blossoming romance was confirmed when they shared a steamy kiss in Mayfair last month, speculation of a split grew after Samie was noticeably absent from Sam's highly-publicised challenge for Soccer Aid last week. Such rumours have since been squashed however, with their romance reportedly going from strength to strength as they 'love spending time together on their days off', a source close to the couple told MailOnline. During an episode of their podcast Staying Relevant's last month, Pete Wicks, 37, teased Sam about the prospect of the potentially awkward encounter between him and Louis. The TOWIE star asked his co-host: 'You're really going through it with the whole f****** body and dieting and training loads. Is that for Soccer Aid?' Sam laughed and assured he's 'loving it' but 'no, it's not' for the game, to which Pete continued: 'Are you sure it's not for Soccer Aid? How are you feeling? You're playing again. Must be really exciting.' He added: 'How do you feel about the line up? Do you think you've got a strong team?' Awkwardly laughing, Sam replied: 'Got a really strong team'. But, not dropping the subject, Pete then asked: 'Any kind of people in there who you're looking forward to playing with?' 'Loads,' Sam laughed: 'Tom Grennan. I'm really looking forward to playing alongside Wayne Rooney, Tyson Fury's the manager. I can't wait'. Pete joked: 'I mean that's gonna be f****** amazing. Make sure you get him on side though because you may need him in your corner in case you fall out with anyone. Not that you will but just in case there's any rivalries or anything. 'You know, you have to train together and it's a lot, you know when you're kind of in close quarters with someone like that. All sorts gets brought up. Anyway...' Sam and Louis will join the likes of Tyson Fury, Jill Scott, Grennan and Paddy McGuinness in the star-studded squad, while Wayne Rooney will step out of retirement as one of the managers. However, whilst he is assured to be in attendance, Sam's ability to take part in the match itself is doubtful after he suffered an agonising ankle injury during his journey from London to Manchester on bike and foot last week. The former I'm A Celeb winner suffered the injury on the marathon's first day, but managed to power through five further days before reaching the finish line on Friday. Having raised more than £1.5million for Unicef and battled through a torn calf, the 32-year-old couldn't hide his emotions after completing his mission as he collapsed to the floor in tears. Speaking after the challenge, Sam said: 'My legs have completely gone but I feel good. I'm so grateful for everyone being here, I didn't think anyone would turn up. 'To everyone who has donated, I've said it before but I'll say it a million times, you are so heroic. The money will help so many children, I'm so grateful.' Sam may now have more time to pursue his romance with Samie, who recently opened up about their relationship for the first time. Sam first met Samie, who appeared on Love Island in 2023 and returned to the All Stars series this year, through his presenting role on Aftersun. Samie spoke about the blossoming relationship for the first time during an appearance on the Chloe Mediumship podcast. The show is hosted by a psychic medium and in the episode, the beauty revealed how she's previously had negative gut feelings in past relationships. She explained: 'I've had gut feelings with guys before. I've had a couple of relationships where I've known it was never it. Like this is gonna come to an end, I'll have something telling me every day it's coming to an end, this isn't for you. 'You put it to the back of your mind and then you start noticing the chaos increase. It's like the universe saying I'm gonna blow you both up if you just do not separate. Then I'm like if I only I listened all those months ago when I got that first message.' Then, host Chloe asked: 'Obviously, you don't have to talk about it too much but the guy you're currently speaking to, do you have that gut feeling? Like do you think it's gonna be really good?' Keeping her cards close to her chest, the former Love Islander replied: 'There's been no bad stuff at the minute so yeah I suppose it is all positive right now. It's early days.' Zara and Louis sparked relationship speculation at the start of this year before going public in March, three months after MailOnline revealed Zara and ex-boyfriend Sam had parted ways. Despite his heartache over Zara moving on so quickly, sources close to Sam exclusively told MailOnline at the time he holds no grudges against Louis over the new romance. A source close to the star said: 'Sam has no hard feelings towards Louis, that's for sure. 'As far as he's concerned, Louis is Zara's new man and he's just got to accept it. 'He's a positive guy and will just move on from this, throwing himself into work and getting stuck into the exciting projects he's got coming up. 'Obviously he was sad when their relationship broke up and, like anyone, when your ex moves so quickly it's tough. And if he was both angry and devastated, that would be understandable. 'But he's not sitting around wallowing in self pity, far from it.' Zara and Sam were together for five years before they split at the end of 2024 shortly after the Made In Chelsea favourite worked in Australia for I'm A Celeb spinoff show Unpacked. This year's Soccer Aid for Unicef match airs on the evening of Sunday 15 June on ITV1 and ITVX from Old Trafford, Manchester.


The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Eberechi Eze offers England's brightest spark amid end-of-season gloom
The beer cups are not yet being hurled. Tabloid editors have not yet decided which root vegetable would Photoshop best onto his face. Helicopters are not yet being despatched to take aerial shots of his house. We are still probably at least two defeats away from our first World War Two-themed front page. But perhaps in hindsight, this was the week Thomas Tuchel finally became the England manager. The night he finally felt the weight of the hairshirt. Finally glimpsed the depth and darkness of a job in which all defeats are humiliations, where the default temperature is set permanently to 'scorn', where every decision is a betrayal of somebody, somewhere. And, you know, fair enough. Ahead of this camp you would probably have got pretty long odds on England emerging from games against Andorra and Senegal with a negative goal difference. England have neither attacked well nor defended well, and indeed have looked for the most part exactly what they are: a group of exhausted talents sapped by a long season in the most physically demanding league on the planet. Trevoh Chalobah and Levi Colwill were a weird choice of centre-half pairing given both are still trying to pace themselves for a gruelling Club World Cup campaign. Kyle Walker had seemingly prepared for an 8pm rather than a 7.45pm kick-off. Bukayo Saka did four-fifths of very little. Conor Gallagher skittered around like a puppy at Sunday lunch: darting in between legs, knocking things over, eternally sniffing something out, but largely at a loss as to what. And so can we really have learned anything from a game that kicked off five minutes late, where the vibe was so end-of-term you half-expected to see people signing each other's shirts with felt-tip pens? Well, perhaps we did. Amid the loose ends and loose passes, we were treated to Eberechi Eze's best game in an England shirt. That Eze got 90 minutes – for the first time in his 11 caps – was a statement in itself. As Tuchel rolled through his substitutions, Eze kept glancing over to the touchline, half-expecting to see his number. Harry Kane and Anthony Gordon went off. Gallagher went off. Saka and Declan Rice went off. Finally in the 88th minute, Ivan Toney lurked at the side of the pitch. The board went up. It was Myles Lewis-Skelly. Why did Tuchel want to see more of Eze? Why does he refer to Eze as 'Ebs' and Morgan Gibbs-White as 'Morgan Gibbs-White'? As Kane came off and England went strikerless for the first time since the disastrous home defeat against Greece in October 2024, we got our answer. Unleashed in a mobile central role, Eze – flanked by Gibbs-White and Morgan Rogers – was at the heart of England's best period of the match. Already there had been some promising glimpses. England began with a kind of box midfield in possession, Kane and Eze both offering themselves to receive while the two wingers stayed high and stretched the pitch. Out of possession it was Eze who led the press alongside Kane, Eze who won the ball from Lamine Camara for England's opening goal. But it was after the hour that Eze truly came alive. Within seconds of going up top he was bringing down a long ball and playing a frankly ridiculous backheel to Gibbs-White. A few minutes later, with England now 2-1 down, he did it again, and Gibbs-White should have done better with the shot. Later a low cross across the penalty area begged for a touch. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion Already it is clear that Tuchel sees Eze as more of a No 10 than a wide option, perhaps even an alternative No 9 in Kane's absence. His main competition is probably Cole Palmer, another player who seemed to be running on fumes against Andorra at the weekend. Palmer is probably the superior short passer, the superior creator, the superior set-piece taker. Eze, for his part, is a more assiduous off-the-ball presence, a more versatile player, a faster and more direct runner. Either way, this is not as simple a call as it might have been six months ago. For Eze has one more asset in his favour: the wind at his back and the confidence of his coach. His first England goal against Latvia seems to have stirred him to a new level, a stunning late-season run of form that earned him seven goals in six games, the winner in an FA Cup final, and a first European campaign next season if Crystal Palace can somehow navigate Uefa's dual ownership rules. Clearly the noise will abate. Senegal and Nottingham will feel like ancient history by the time Tuchel assembles his players for their next camp. But if Eze ends up playing a pivotal role in England's World Cup side, Tuchel may just reflect that a night of boos and incoherence was not entirely in a lost cause.