Michail Antonio Makes Return to Football Six Months After Life Threatening Car Accident | OneFootball

Michail Antonio made his comeback to professional football on Monday night, featuring for Jamaica in their shock Concacaf Gold Cup defeat to Guatemala.

Antonio was involved in a life-threatening car accident in December when he crashed his vehicle into a tree in Epping Forest, Essex in early December.

The 35-year-old was hospitalised for the rest of the month and was discharged on New Year’s Eve 2024, having spent Christmas recovering from the surgery on his shattered femur.

Given his age, there were initial doubts as to whether Antonio would ever play again. He hasn’t pulled on a West Ham United shirt since the crash but was deemed fit enough to be selected by Jamaica for this summer’s Gold Cup in the United States and Canada.

Having last played in West Ham’s Premier League defeat to Leicester City on December 3, Antonio was brought on as a substitute for the last five minutes of Jamaica’s group stage opener against Guatemala—the 1-0 defeat against a team ranked 43 places lower by FIFA came as a surprise.

Antonio is out of contract with West Ham at the of June, but the club have not made a final decision on his future with them. Admirably, the Hammers have confirmed they will wait until the “right and appropriate” time before anything happens on that front.

In March, Antonio spoke openly about how close he was to being killed in the accident, which may have been prompted by awful weather conditions during Storm Darragh.

“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 told BBC One’s Morning Live in March.

“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,” but Antonio remembers “nothing”

He explained: “My leg was completely shattered and they got me out and put a splint on it by the side of the car. Everyone believed I got an air ambulance out, but the helicopter couldn't get off the ground because of the storm, so I was driven to the hospital.

“[Seeing the remains of the car months later] gave me a weird feeling in my stomach. It just made me realise how close I was to dying. I had seen the pictures but it was 10 times worse in person. The car was an absolute mess. It was difficult for me.”

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