Daily Mail: Freddie Flintoff to make TV comeback in 2024 after Top Gear smash

Story from Daily Mail:

England cricket legend and Top Gear presenter Freddie Flintoff is plotting his TV comeback next year after a horrific crash on the BBC motoring show put him out of action for months.

The all-rounder, 45, is preparing to return to TV to make a second series of Field of Dreams, the 2022 BBC documentary series that saw him introducing children in his home city of Preston to cricket.

The Sun reports that Flintoff may also front another motoring show - Chasing Cars, which has been described as The Repair Shop but for petrolheads.

But the dad-of-four is said to be pacing himself ahead of a return to screens as the one-year anniversary of the crash that saw him retreat from the public eye for months looms.

Flintoff was driving a Morgan Super 3 - a lightweight 'trackday' sports car with two wheels at the front and one at the back - at the Dunsfold test track near Guildford, Surrey last December when it overturned.

The open-top car has no airbags, and the cricketer was not wearing a helmet when the car flipped at around 22mph - meaning he 'scraped' his face along the tarmac in horrific scenes witnessed by the TV production crew.

The paper also reports that Flintoff may also choose to be interviewed about the physical and psychological issues associated the crash.

He has bravely shared details of his struggles with an eating disorder - both in an interview on Piers Morgan's Life Stories and in BBC documentary Freddie Flintoff: Living With Bulimia.

A TV insider told The Sun: 'His return to the limelight is something both telly execs and the public have been longing for and thankfully he now seems ready to return to doing what he loves.

'He just needs to get past the one year anniversary of the crash, then he can focus on the next chapter of his career.'

Flintoff reportedly required a number of surgeries following the crash, suffering broken ribs and facial bones after being dragged along the road.

Several members of staff who witnessed it were signed off sick, having reportedly been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder - a claim the BBC has denied.

He retreated from the limelight at the behest of his family in order to recover, breaking cover for the first time last month to coach England cricketers.

An investigation mounted in the aftermath of Flintoff's crash found the BBC had no case to answer, while Morgan - a British marque based in Worcestershire - has said there was nothing wrong with the car.

The Super 3, as it is named, is capable of hitting 62mph in seven seconds and a top speed of 130mph.

Morgan says of the car on its website: 'With every drive, your senses are heightened as you are forced to remain present and focussed.'

A source told the Mail on Sunday earlier this month: 'Freddie was not wearing a helmet but the situation is that he did not have to wear one.

'The car is road legal without a helmet – it has a halo safety device – and he was on a private track.

'They had only just set off and were on the first corner when the car flipped and he scraped his face along the tarmac.'

Filming for the remainder of the newest series of Top Gear - which stars Flintoff alongside Paddy McGuinness and motoring journalist Chris Harris - was canned following the December 13 incident.

It isn't even the first incident Flintoff has had filming on Top Gear - running out of runway as he drove a motorised trike known as a Time Bandit that is capable of more than 120mph.

In that accident, in September 2019, he was wearing a full motorcycle suit and helmet - coming away unhurt.

Flintoff has been fronting the show since 2019 in the third major reworking of the show since the departure of mainstays Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May in 2015 after Clarkson punched a producer.

Radio and TV veteran Chris Evans was recruited to front a renewed Top Gear alongside actor Matt LeBlanc, Harris and journalist Rory Reid.

But Evans left after one series, while Reid and LeBlanc were swapped out for Flintoff and McGuinness four years ago.

The BBC has denied, however, that the show is finished for good following Flintoff's crash - the second serious incident on Top Gear after Richard Hammond's 300mph dragster crash in 2006 that left him in a coma for two weeks.

A spokesperson told MailOnline last week: 'A decision on the timing of future Top Gear shows will be made in due course with BBC Content.'