Striker Michail Antonio will be handed an opportunity to revive his club career in the Championship with Leicester City, a year on from a car accident that left his playing future in grave uncertainty.
The 35-year-old ex-West Ham attacker sustained a severe leg injury, with his femur fractured in four places, after the Ferrari he was driving collided with a tree in Epping Forest in December 2024.
He has been training with Leicester this week and is available as a free-agent option for Foxes head coach Marti Cifuentes to possibly call upon in the absence of Patson Daka, who is set to link up with Zambia next week for the Africa Cup of Nations.
“He has looked good and has been a good lad to have around as well,” Cifuentes told BBC East Midlands Today.
“We are just having a look at him and he is happy to train with us.”
Antonio was in the closing months of his deal with Premier League outfit West Ham when the single-vehicle crash occurred late last year.
He spent more than three weeks in hospital after undergoing surgery and has since spoken openly about the demanding physical and mental rehabilitation that followed.
He failed to recover in time to make a return to action for West Ham last season and was released when his contract expired in June.
However, he did make a comeback with Jamaica over the summer and remained at West Ham after his deal ended, enabling him to continue his rehabilitation and pick up valuable minutes with the club’s Under-21 side.
When asked whether Antonio has shown any lasting signs of the ordeal he has endured over the past year, Cifuentes said: “Not at all.
“We are aware that he has been training before with another club and he is looking good in that sense,” the Spaniard added.
“Match fitness is what will take some time to learn because he has been away for a long period.
“It’s never easy, and it doesn’t matter how hard you train or how hard you are involved, because the level of the game is different.”
Antonio spent a decade at West Ham and departed as the club’s all-time leading Premier League goalscorer, with 68 goals from 268 appearances.
The forward, who began his career in non-league football with Tooting & Mitcham United, has netted more than 130 goals across over 550 matches since signing his first professional contract with Reading at the age of 18.
He later enjoyed spells with Southampton, Sheffield Wednesday and Nottingham Forest before completing his move to West Ham in 2015.