'My heroes': West Ham star Michail Antonio thanks medics who saved his life after horror car crash | OneFootball

“I wouldn’t be here without you,” says Hammers striker in reunion with Rob Moon and Dr James Moloney on BBC One's Morning Live

Michail Antonio has hailed Essex and Herts Air Ambulance medics as “my heroes” after they saved his life six months ago.

The Jamaican international, 35, spent three weeks in hospital following the crash in Epping Forest en route back home from training.

Since then, he has undergone a rehabilitation programme as he targets a return to the pitch.

Antonio was trapped in his car after the incident, and was freed by an Essex County Fire and Rescue crew before being driven to the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel. An airlift was not able to take place because of Storm Darragh.

In an appearance on BBC’s Morning Live, an emotional Antonio met the two medics that saved his life, Rob Moon and Dr James Moloney.

“I want to say thank you," he told the pair.

United: West Ham players rallied to show their support after Michail Antonio was seriously hurt in a car crash in December

Zac Goodwin/PA Wire

“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."

The former Nottingham Forest star had said previously that he had no recollection of the accident, and reaffirmed that on the BBC show in an exchange with the medics.

"I don't remember their faces at all,” Antonio said. “It's crazy because of how important you guys were to me."

"There was one clue - there was a West Ham shirt in the passenger seat with Antonio on it,” Moon recalled.

Moloney told Antonio that he had been ”incredibly repetitive, but that happens when people bump their head”.

Blank: Michail Antonio does not know how he crashed his car into the tree. All he knows is that he did.

BBC

He said: "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."

In a previous interview on Morning Live back in March, Antonio had admitted that “sports cars are not my friends”, and that, “for now, anyway, I’m staying away from sports cars.”

The Jamaican spoke of the effect that the crash had on his young family, including his children.

He believed that his family had "probably experienced the incident more than I did”, in conversation with Trish Burton, responsible for the air ambulance’s patient and family team.

Going down for surgery the next day, I don't remember doing that

Michail Antonio

"They've gone to the hospital, they've come to see me, they've seen how I was,” Antonio continued.

“I don't remember my face being cut or anything... and going down for surgery the next day, I don't remember doing that.

"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’s contract at the London Stadium is set to expire this summer, and his club future will be up in the air.

The Hammers sacked Julen Lopetegui and replaced him with Graham Potter while Antonio has been sidelined, and the forward has not been able to play under the new boss to prove his worth for a new deal, which he has revealed previously as being “horrendous” and having an impact on his mental health.