Flintoff suffered a series of horrific injuries when hurt in the accident while filming for Top Gear late in 2022. The 47-year-old had largely left cricket behind while pursuing a successful second career in television, but staged a quiet return to the sport as part of his recovery, initially working with England’s Under-19 sides the following summer, unbeknown to the wider public. Flintoff has since re-emerged into the limelight as a coach, working with the senior England team, as well as becoming head coach of the Northern Superchargers in The Hundred and the England Lions. “It’s always going to be there, but in a strange way, I’ve got an acceptance of it now,” Flintoff said of the crash - which has left him physically and mentally scarred for life - in an interview with The Times. “I’m not fighting it. I still get flashbacks at night and anxiety and other stuff but I know it’s happening and I’m accepting of it. When I’m around cricket I don’t get it; I’ve found comfort in the dressing room again. “It has made me appreciate the game and the people a hell of a lot and made me realise that this is the place where I want to be. This is the place I feel most comfortable and this is what I get the most pleasure from, get most excited about and I care about it.” Flintoff’s under-the-radar return to cricket was first facilitated by close friend and England men’s managing director Rob Key, who invited his former team-mate to watch a number of Tests during the 2023 Ashes from private rooms. His first public appearance came at the end of that summer, when he was handed an informal mentor role on the England staff for the white-ball series against New Zealand, and Flintoff has revealed his mental struggle before making his first public appearance ahead of the One-Day International at Cardiff. “That day in Cardiff, it took me ten goes to leave my bedroom,” he explained. “I couldn’t get out of the room. “I was so anxious and worried. I eventually went down to breakfast; sat down and chatted with Reece Topley and then Jos [Buttler]. I had to go back to my room to get my baseball mitt and ‘flicker’ and I was waiting for the lift again and heard footsteps. I knew it would be ’Stokesy [Ben Stokes]’. “I didn’t really know him then. I’ve built a great relationship with him since, but I was anxious about that, standing in the lift with him. We were both stood there. He’s ‘Stokesy’ and I am supposed to be like that, I suppose, but I didn’t feel like that.” Flintoff’s comeback story is to be told in a new Disney+ documentary out on Friday. While he continues to pick up some television work, the former all-rounder says his accident has given him a fresh appreciation of cricket and he is now committed to his coaching career. “Doing all these shows, I was thankful for it,” he added. “I travelled a lot, met lots of people, went to places I didn’t know existed, but I still missed cricket. It’s what I enjoy and what I wanted to do. “Whatever show I was doing there was never that same fulfilment of playing cricket. I never made relationships with people that I did playing cricket. You take some jobs for money, but it doesn’t necessarily make you happy. “In all honesty, if I had done it [coaching] ten years ago, I might not have lasted all that long, but taking a step back from the game, you see another side of life; you experience other things and then when you come back into cricket, you are far more appreciative of it and you realise, yes, this is special. This is something that I genuinely love.”