Pape Souaré: ‘I didn’t know when the pain would stop but I didn’t want to give up’

A year on from the car crash that broke his leg and his jaw and could have ended his career, the Crystal Palace defender is on the verge of a remarkable return to the first team
Pape Souaré remembers wincing in disbelief as the car swerved out in front of him and, a split second later, the sickening crunch as his Mercedes G63 collided at speed with the central reservation. But it was only once the dust from the deployed airbags had settled and he slowly became aware of his surroundings, his ears ringing and senses numbed by shock, that the fear truly kicked in.
His right leg was trapped, the driver’s door of his mangled vehicle having folded itself inwards on impact and pinned him to his seat. Another commuter on the M4, who had witnessed the crash that sunny afternoon a little over a year ago, had pulled over and was urging the injured footballer, as calmly as he could, to focus. “He kept saying my name, which surprised me. I didn’t understand how he knew my name,” recalls Souaré. “He was telling me: ‘Stay with me, stay with me.’ I was really listening to him, waiting and waiting, and I couldn’t move or do anything.
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