On the morning of 7 December 2024, Michail Antonio woke up as a Premier League striker. By nightfall, he was lying in a hospital bed with a broken leg – grateful, above all, to be alive.
The West Ham United forward had been driving home from training in Epping when his Ferrari left the road. He remembers nothing of the impact. The mangled wreck, the flashing lights, the voices telling him to stay still -those are details others have filled in for him.
“I was literally on my way home from training and almost lost my life,” Antonio recalled, his voice steady but eyes betraying the memory’s weight. “They told me 12 months. I was back in training after five-and-a-half.”
Doctors said his leg would heal, but it would take patience – something football rarely allows. Antonio decided he could not wait. “It’s down to you and the hard work you put into it. I’ve always been a hard worker. I managed to do it in half the time a normal person would.”
By March, he was driving again. By the summer, he was wearing Jamaica’s colours at the CONCACAF Gold Cup, sprinting on a leg that had once been bolted back together in a London operating theatre.
Then came news that pulled him up short. In June, Liverpool forward Diogo Jota and his brother André Silva were killed in a road accident during their summer break. The football world fell silent. At Anfield, scarves, flowers and shirts formed a sea of red in tribute.
“It shocked me to my core,” Antonio said quietly. “I was in the gym doing strength work on my leg when my physio told me. I couldn’t carry on. I went home. It could easily have been me.”
The loss gave his own survival sharper meaning. “I used to push things to the side, thinking I’d deal with them later. Now, I’m more of a go-getter. Anything can happen.”
After ten years at West Ham, Antonio is now a free agent. At 35, he knows the next move might be his last. But he also knows what it means to fight back when the odds are against you.
“I’m back to normal. I’m ready to go. And now I’ve got something to prove again — that’s what’s made me even hungrier.”
He laughs as he admits that his right leg, rebuilt after surgery, is now stronger than his left. “I’ve got to catch the other one up,” he grins.
For Antonio, football is no longer just a career -it is proof that life can be given back when you least expect it. And that every day on the pitch is borrowed time worth playing for.
About the Author
