Antonio shattered his femur in 4 totally different locations after his Ferrari spun off the highway and crashed right into a tree in Epping Forest throughout Storm Darragh.
Antonio, who was supported by West Ham all through his rehabilitation, reiterates that he doesn’t keep in mind the crash and says his “family lived it more”.
He particulars how he needed to be taught to stroll, then run and leap once more, including: “The hardest part wasn’t the recovery. It was the knockbacks for me.”
The ahead held talks with Brentford and Leicester Metropolis over proposed transfers however these offers didn’t materialise.
He stated: “When I found out I’d torn my calf the day before signing for Brentford, I laid in bed for two days.
“First day, I used to be simply crying. The second day, I simply did not need to get away from bed. I assumed ‘I am again the place I need to be, I am again within the Premier League’. After which it occurred once more with Leicester.
“I was meant to return to Leicester but they didn’t want me back in because they didn’t want a relapse on their books. So I trained alone for a week and then went into Charlton.”
Antonio held exploratory talks with the Championship membership over a pay-as-you-play deal, earlier than selecting to maneuver to Qatar as an alternative.
Psychological resilience has all the time been a theme of Antonio’s profession, having been rejected by the likes of Brentford and Queens Park Rangers as a youngster, needing to go from non-league Tooting and Mitcham in south London, aged 12 to 18, to the Premier League by climbing the English soccer pyramid.
“It wasn’t until I was going through a divorce that I started therapy,” he stated. “Therapy made me realise there are a lot of things you experience in life, but you never really live the moments. Like with Leicester – I was numb to it, but numbing isn’t dealing with it.
“Not till you communicate to somebody – not somebody who provides their opinion, however somebody who helps you perceive what is going on on – that is whenever you realise these moments are key.”
