West Ham's Michail Antonio opens up about near-fatal car crash

Antonio, who was driving his Ferrari during a stormy December day, crashed into a tree, leaving his car in pieces. "The police came and when they found me I was in between the two seats. I wasn't actually in the driver's seat," he said.

The impact left him with a shattered leg and in excruciating pain. "They said it looked like I was trying to climb out of the window, but because my leg was so badly broken the pain probably stopped me from being able to get out."

Pictures of the wrecked car made people question if Antonio had survived the crash, and it wasn't until later that he was able to share the extent of the ordeal. The West Ham player was in the hospital for over three weeks, recovering from a broken femur.

Despite the severity of the injury, he insists that he will return to playing at the highest level, calling the accident a "second chance at life."

"The back of the car kept swinging out on me, so I didn't feel safe. I had had it for three weeks and I was already thinking about giving it back"  he explained. "It's weird because the whole way through this, I have been told that I was awake and speaking to everyone," he said.

After being rescued from the wreckage and given medical attention at the scene, Antonio was driven to the hospital as the storm prevented an air ambulance from reaching him. Reflecting on his first visit to the scrapyard, where he saw the remains of his car, Antonio admitted: "It gave me a weird feeling in my stomach. It just made me realise how close I was to dying.

"I shattered my femur bone in four different places," he said. Despite the doctor's initial recommendation to refrain from putting weight on his leg for three months, Antonio is already pushing himself to recover. "They say it will be between six to 12 months before my leg starts healing properly, but I've already exceeded expectations and am ahead of where I should be."

Antonio's road to recovery is long, but his resilience and positive attitude will undoubtedly fuel his return to top-tier football. "People have always doubted me. My mental strength is something that I've always believed in, and this is just another setback, and it is not going to stop me."