Former West Ham star Michail Antonio is close to returning to club football – one year after his horrifying car crash.
Antonio was involved in an accident in Theydon Bois, Essex while driving home from the Rush Green training ground in his Ferrari FF on December 7, 2024.
It took emergency services almost an hour to free the 35-year-old from his car after he collided with a tree, after which he was airlifted to hospital where he underwent surgery for a broken leg.
Antonio remained in hospital for three weeks and upon being discharged said he was ‘grateful to be alive’.
Since the accident, the forward has not played any club football, though he has made three appearances for Jamaica.
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His contract with West Ham expired at the end of the last season, though he remained with the Premier League club over the summer as he continued his rehabilitation, even playing in an U21s match in August.
He has since departed the London Stadium for good and has been working as a pundit for TNT Sports, appearing on their coverage of his old side Nottingham Forest’s Europe League match on Thursday night.
But, according to The Telegraph, Antonio is keen on returning to the pitch and on Thursday held talks with Forest’s arch-rivals Leicester City.
The forward is now training with the Foxes and is ‘under consideration for a short-term deal’ at the King Power.
Leicester have struggled since their relegation from the Premier League and currently lie in the bottom half of the Championship table and with their finances tight, it’s a deal that could work well for all parties.
Antonio spent a decade at West Ham, recording 83 goals and 43 assists in 323 appearances.
He played a key part in the Irons’ Conference League triumph in 2022/23 and is the club’s all-time top scorer in the Premier League.
Speaking about the crash in March, Antonio revealed he could not remember the accident: ‘It’s weird, because the whole way through this, I have been told that I was awake and was speaking to everybody – the police, the people, and the person who found me.
‘My leg was completely shattered and they got me out and put a splint on it by the side of the car.
‘I shattered my femur bone in four different places. I had one single keyhole surgery. They put a pole in my thigh with four bolts, so screws and bolts to knit it back together.’
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