Michail Antonio: ‘In football, no one really cares about you as long as you perform’

“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. The former West Ham forward lets it all out in Humans Not Robots, his raw and entertaining new book. After opening with a tale about the crash, the autobiography moves on to a different kind of blow. Antonio talks about the aftermath of West Ham’s win over Fiorentina in the Conference League final in 2023. He had a row with his ex during the celebrations at the Fortuna Arena and could not bring himself to go out with his teammates for the party in Prague. Antonio zoned out on the bus back to the team hotel. Josh Ewens, a sports scientist at West Ham, felt the decline in Antonio’s mood, telling him he seemed “drained by life”. It hit home. On the journey back from the ground, Antonio thought he was merely weary after helping West Ham win their first trophy in 43 years. “I just went back to sleep on the coach,” he says. “But it wasn’t tightness from the game. It was tightness from life. …