One of West Ham’s biggest stars, Michail Antonio, was involved in a serious road accident on Saturday and is now being treated in hospital, with well wishes from the football community. .
In a brief statement on Saturday night, West Ham confirmed the news, with images emerging of a smashed silver Ferrari believed to have been in the Essex area earlier in the day.
In one image, most of the right front of the car could be seen almost torn away from the rest of the vehicle.
However, the club did not confirm what injuries the player had suffered, and he was “conscious and communicating” shortly afterwards, in what was hugely encouraging news for those close to the player.
Fans and clubs around the world took to social media to send their love to Antonio and those closest to him following his accident, with his former teammate Jobi McAnuff leading the way as the world rallied to offer their support.
Antonio is a wonder in his own right and is a testament to many that hard work always pays off, having worked his way up the English football pyramid from non-league Tooting and Mitcham to West Ham in just seven years.
West Ham star Michail Antonio was involved in a car accident, the Hammers confirmed
Photos of a wrecked Ferrari have emerged, reportedly showing the aftermath of the crash.
Another image appears to show the Premier League star’s wrecked vehicle.
Born in Wandsworth to Jamaican parents, Antonio played semi-professional football for Tooting and Mitcham from the age of 17, and probably couldn’t have predicted the rise he would have throughout the game.
A versatile and physically powerful player, Antonio spent time at Reading, Sheffield Wednesday and Nottingham Forest before joining the Hammers in 2015, initially as a full-back and right winger before forging his own path to the number 9 shirt.
That change of position has served both player and club well, with Antonio the Hammers the Premier League’s record goalscorer 68-21 ahead of second-placed club legend Mark Noble at the top of the table .
His perseverance and resilience have made him a much-loved figure at the club, earning him the annual Hammer of the Year award in 2017, but he has had to overcome off-field setbacks along the way.
The 34-year-old has four children and was previously married to Debbie Whittle, whom he married in a June 2017 ceremony held at the Hoar Cross Hall hotel in Staffordshire, although the couple are now divorced.
The separation from his ex-partner took its toll on the forward, who revealed in early 2024 that he had started therapy in the middle of a difficult period in his career when he openly admitted to having fallen out of love with football.
The striker confessed that “he began to not like the game” in a period of extreme fatigue, caused by events outside of football, and at a moment that should have been one of the happiest: winning the Europa Conference League with West Ham. last year, he was severely “mentally exhausted.”
“I was going through my divorce and stuff, and I honestly couldn’t understand it,” Antonio shared in the High Performance Podcast. “After we won, the whole team went out, the manager (David Moyes) went out, he went furious, a couple of kids didn’t sleep for two days, they just got drunk for two days.
Antonio bravely shared details about his mental health and therapy earlier this year.
The striker struggled with the mental strain of issues in his personal life intersecting with the sport.
Antonio has worked his way up the football ladder with spells at clubs across the Football League.
Antonio was at Sheffield Wednesday in 2012 while on loan from parent club Reading.
He was part of the Southampton team that won the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy in 2010 along with Adam Lallana (second left) and Ricky Lambert (right).
“I was asleep on the coach and returned to the hotel. “I was mentally exhausted from everything that was going on outside of my football and then I went back to the hotel and went to sleep while everyone was partying.”
“It probably wasn’t until December that I found myself in a better place and thought, ‘Oh my God, I’ve won a European championship.'”
During a match in December 2022, he noted that he couldn’t stop thinking: “I’m not enjoying football.”
“During the game I thought, ‘I’m not really enjoying this.’ I felt quite negative. I’m also a very positive person.
“I didn’t score from December until I think March or April came around. And I felt exhausted. And then I went with Jamaica because I was enjoying football with Jamaica for some strange reason. But I actually prayed for an injury.
“I thought, ‘I just want to get injured, I want some time off.’
‘And then I went to Jamaica and had the medial (knee ligament, in November 2023).
“I was thinking, ‘I’m 33 years old. “I can’t afford to act this way, otherwise I won’t get another contract.”
The 34-year-old revealed that it took him almost six months to realize he had won the Europa Conference League.
Antonio has become one of Jamaica’s biggest stars and has 21 caps for the Reggae Boyz.
‘So, it’s all those things that go through your mind. You’re thinking, “Is this the end for me? Is my football career over?”
After first seeking support in December 2022, Antonio met with several therapists after initially turning to his club doctors and the PFA before finally deciding to take the next step independently.
Antonio cited the grueling club and international demands on players’ schedules as contributing factors to his feelings about football, adding: “Because football is constant, you are constantly in it.”
After initially rejecting his advances with ambitions to play for England, Antonio eventually declared for Jamaica in 2021, and has since made 21 appearances and scored five goals for his country.
One of those goals in particular perhaps stands out from the rest; His goal in Jamaica’s 3-1 loss to Ecuador in June was the first his country scored in a Copa América.
Antonio is one of the biggest names in his team, with Leon Bailey, Isaac Hayden and Ethan Pinnock also regular stars for the Reggae Boyz outside the Premier League.
Given his importance to his team, Steve McLaren and company will be hoping that Antonio can recover in time to help them achieve what would be a sensational World Cup qualification, having only reached the final once in 1998. .
Antonio has spent his career defying expectations and conventions; Much like the legendary story of Jamie Vardy, Antonio simply refused to give up his ambitions and dreams of playing in the Premier League.
Having established himself as one of West Ham’s dressing room bosses and considered one of his country’s leading stars, it could be argued that Antonio has already achieved more than he could have hoped for as a teenager playing for Tooting. and Mitcham.
It is still unclear what injuries the player has suffered following his accident on Saturday, and the club indicated that another update would be issued “in due course”, although if there is one thing his extraordinary story so far has taught us, it is that Poco can get in your way.