Former boxing champion Anthony Joshua leaves hospital after a car crash in Nigeria that killed two of his close friends.
LAGOS: Former world heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua has been discharged from hospital after surviving a fatal car accident in Nigeria.
State officials confirmed his release on Wednesday, two days after the crash on a highway linking Lagos and Ibadan that killed two of his close friends.
Preliminary investigations by the Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency indicate the vehicle was speeding and suffered a burst tyre before the collision with a stationary truck.
Joshua sustained only minor injuries in the accident, according to Nigerian police.
His friends, Sina Ghami and Latif Ayodele, died at the scene. Ghami was Joshua’s longtime strength coach, while Ayodele served as his personal trainer.
“Though heavy hearted and full of emotion over the loss of his two close friends, he was deemed clinically fit to recuperate at home,” said a joint statement from Lagos and Ogun state spokesmen.
The two-time heavyweight champion was treated at Lagos’s Lagoon Hospital following the crash on Monday.
After his discharge, Joshua and his mother visited a funeral home where the bodies of his friends were being prepared for repatriation.
The driver of the SUV has also been discharged from hospital and is being questioned by police.
A local newspaper reported the driver could face prosecution for reckless driving, though no formal charges have been announced.
Joshua, a British national with family roots in southwest Nigeria, often visits the region.
The 36-year-old former champion knocked out YouTuber Jake Paul in a high-profile bout in Miami last December.
