West Ham’s record Premier League goalscorer on the club’s decline, the benefits of therapy and always being asked about his car crash

‘I never thought I needed therapy,” says Michail Antonio during a long conversation about the darker side of football, trauma and where it went wrong for West Ham. “I was always a happy person. But I had so many demons.”

This is not just about the moment that almost cost the 36-year-old his life. Antonio knows how lucky he was to emerge from the wreckage with only a broken leg after crashing his Ferrari while driving home from training in December 2024, but it is one part of the story and there are plenty more chapters to write.