Known as ‘Freddie’, Flintoff transitioned into TV presenting at the end of his cricket career and fronted Top Gear from 2019 until the crash three years later.
In the first series of Field of Dreams, aired in 2022, Flintoff returned to his hometown of Preston to assemble a cricket team of teens that had never played the game before. The second series centres on taking the team on a tour of India and began filming before Flintoff’s accident.
The crash occurred 12 weeks before the tour was scheduled to take place. In the documentary, Flintoff is shown a week and a half after the accident in footage he shot himself on his phone. It reveals the initial extent of his facial injuries.
“I genuinely should not be here with what happened,” he said. “It’s going to be a long road back and I’ve only just started. I’m going to need help. I really am. I’m not the best at asking for it.
“I’m looking forward to seeing the lads. I really am. This India trip is going to be for me as much as them now. I’m determined. I really want to go.” In the end, the tour would have to be delayed until 2024.
Seven months after the accident, in the summer of 2023, Flintoff was visited by close friend and fellow coach Kyle Hogg. The exchange between the two, captured in the documentary, is Flintoff’s first explanation of the impact the accident had on him.
By that stage, Flintoff had undergone a number of operations on his face and rarely left his home. When he did it was with a “full face mask and glasses”.