Anthony Joshua leaves hospital after deadly Nigeria crash

Heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua walked out of a Nigerian hospital on New Year’s Eve and immediately paid tribute to his coaches killed in the highway crash that took him there.

Doctors said Joshua could recover at home as authorities planned to charge the driver of the SUV they were in Monday when it slammed into a truck stopped on the road at speed.

Joshua was “with a heavy heart and full of emotions following the loss of his two close friends” when he left the hospital on Wednesday afternoon, the Lagos and Ogun state governments said on X.

Joshua’s strength and conditioning coach, Sina Ghami, and trainer Latif “Latz” Ayodele both died in the accident.

“Anthony and his mother were at the funeral home in Lagos this afternoon to pay their last respects to his two deceased friends as they prepared for their planned repatriation later this evening,” Lagos State spokesperson Gbenga Omotoso wrote in the government statement.

Joshua, 36, was hospitalized for observation with minor injuries, officials said. He was in the back seat of a Lexus SUV that was transporting the three men from Lagos to Sagamu along the busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in Makun, Ogun State, when a tire burst and sent the out-of-control vehicle crashing into the truck, officials said.

The driver, who also survived, “could be prosecuted for dangerous driving”, a police official told the Nigerian newspaper The Guardian, according to Agence France-Presse.

Ghami and Ayodele were pronounced dead at the scene, Police Commander Babatunde Akinbiyi of Nigeria’s Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps (TRACE) told BBC News.

The men were “two of Joshua’s closest friends” as well as being “important parts of the Anthony Joshua machine”, boxing expert Steve Bunce told BBC Radio 5 Live. “They’re with him, if not from the beginning, at least very early on. They’re with him all the time.”

Condolences poured in for all three.

“Rest in peace Latz and Sina,” Matchroom Boxing’s Eddie Hearn wrote in an Instagram post alongside a photo of the three men. “Your energy and loyalty, among so many other great qualities, will be deeply missed. Praying for the strength and guidance of all their family, friends and of course AJ during this very difficult time.”