Freddie Flintoff will return to our screens this Sunday as he hosts the new series of Bullseye, three years after his life-changing Top Gear crash
Freddie Flintoff is back hosting Bullseye(Image: ITV)
Freddie Flintoff and Bullseye are set to light up TV screens once again this Sunday. The legendary England cricketer is back in the studio three years after his life-altering Top Gear accident.
The Lancashire-born former all-rounder smoothly transitioned into television following his retirement and after a successful trial run last Christmas, he’ll be at the helm of the much-loved darts game show for an entire series starting on Sunday at 8pm on ITV.
One of Flintoff’s most recent roles was as a presenter on Top Gear, a role he took on in 2019. Just three years after his debut on the BBC mainstay, a mishap during filming at Surrey’s Dunsfold Park Aerodrome resulted in Flintoff sustaining life-changing injuries and permanent facial scarring.
In December 2022, while filming for Top Gear, which has been indefinitely suspended by the BBC following this incident, Flintoff rolled over in a Morgan Super 3 vehicle.
This particular car was a roofless model, so when he flipped at the aerodrome’s first bend, his face was dragged along the tarmac. He wasn’t wearing a crash helmet and suffered from broken ribs as well as severe facial injuries.
In a self-titled documentary about the incident on Disney+, the surgeon who treated Flintoff’s injuries revealed that his wounds were difficult to manage and were filled with grit and dirt.
The car Flintoff was driving skidded along the tarmac(Image: Disney)
Flintoff also revealed that he had sustained both soft and hard tissue injuries, lost and broken teeth, as well as a fractured upper jawbone. The former cricket star underwent a single reconstructive surgery that lasted approximately five hours.
In the documentary, the 47-year-old gave a detailed account of his thoughts during the crash. Flintoff explained: “It was a three-wheeler, and it had a reinforced windscreen, so I’m exposed.
“Probably doing about 40-45 [miles per hour]. The wheel came up at the front. It’s a funny thing rolling a car because it’s a point of no return and everything slows down.
The former cricket star underwent hours of surgery(Image: Disney)
“It’s so weird. As it started going over, I looked at the ground and I knew that if I went on the side, I’d break my neck. If I hit my temple, I’m dead. The best chance is go face down.
“I remember hitting my jaw but then I got dragged out. The car went over, then I went over the back of the car and then was pulled facedown on the runway about 50 meters underneath the car.
“Then it hit the grass and flipped back. I thought I was dead because I was conscious but I couldn’t see anything. I was thinking, ‘Is that it?’ Black for the rest of my days. But I had a hat over my eyes. So I pulled my hat up and I thought, ‘No, I’m alive. It’s the Top Gear track.’
Flintoff was left with permanent scarring(Image: BBC)
“I looked down and the blood just started coming down and my biggest fear was I didn’t think I had a face. I thought my face had come off. I was frightened to death.”
In a heartrending admission, Flintoff confessed that he sometimes wished he had not survived the ordeal. He further explained: “After the accident, I didn’t think I had it in me to get through.
“This sounds awful: part of me wishes I had been killed. Part of me thinks, ‘I wish I had died.’ I didn’t want to kill myself, don’t mistake the two things, but I was thinking: ‘This would have been so much easier.'”
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