Harry Redknapp says he feared his wife was dead after he ran over her foot in freak accident

Sign up to our free Living Well email for advice on living a happier, healthier and longer life

Live your life healthier and happier with our free weekly Living Well newsletter

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy

Harry Redknapp has described a freak accident during which he accidentally ran over his wife Sandra’s foot as one of the “worst days” of his life.

The incident, which took place in 2016 during a shopping trip, left Sandra’s foot “sliced like a piece of bacon” and resulted in her needing an operation.

The former football player and manager opened up about the experience in the couple’s new autobiography, When Harry Met Sandra.

In an extract seen by The Mirror, Redknapp said the accident took place shortly after he parked their car and asked his wife to be careful of the traffic.

Moments later, he accidentally reversed and trapped Sandra’s foot under the wheel.

Recalling the feeling, Sandra said: “I felt this huge pressure on my foot and I was suddenly being dragged down.

“’Harry!!’ I screamed. I started banging on the car. ‘Harry!!’ He had reversed over my ankle. I fell into the road as a bus was coming. I could just hear Harry panicking.”

Upon hearing his wife’s scream, Redknapp said that for a “moment” he thought she had died.

“I thought another car had hit her. I heard her scream, but I didn’t realise it was me who’d knocked her down. I really thought for a moment in time that I had lost her. She was lying in absolute agony on the floor,” he said.

“I looked down in horror at her foot, which looked like it had been sliced like a piece of bacon. There was blood everywhere. And it was all my fault.”

The couple were assisted by Sandra’s friend, Joanna, who was also present. She called for emergency services and instructed Redknapp not to look at his wife’s injury.

“The next thing I remember is sirens and being stretchered into the back of an ambulance,” Sandra said. “Harry was beside himself and in a panic, and it was breaking my heart to see him in such a state.”

In a strange coincidence, the couple’s granddaughter was travelling on a bus at the time, and saw her grandmother being carried into the ambulance.

Redknapp and Sandra married in 1967 and have two sons together.