Filming of the BBC show Top Gear 'suspended indefinitely' following Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff's accident. 

The popular car enthusiast show may not air in 2023 at all, The Sun has reported.

It comes after the presenter was airlifted to hospital following the incident at the Top Gear test track in Surrey.

Sources told the Daily Mail that while the cricket star escaped serious injury but he could quit the programme for good.

Oxford Mail: The BBC immediately suspended filming of the series while it investigated the crash,(PA)The BBC immediately suspended filming of the series while it investigated the crash,(PA) (Image: PA)

Top Gear might not return in 2023 as filming 'suspended indefinitely'

The BBC immediately suspended filming of the series while it investigated the crash.

The broadcaster insists that all “health and safety procedures were followed” at the time, while a spokesman for the Government’s Health and Safety Executive said: “We’ve completed our initial inquiries into this incident and will not be investigating further.”

A source told The Sun: "Cast and crew are still reeling from the shock accident and there is concern about the future of the show. Because Top Gear is such a risky production and there are lots of logistics involved with filming, it’s far more complicated than other TV series..."

They continued: "As well as awaiting the results of the investigation, many production members wouldn’t feel comfortable beginning again without Freddie anyway, he’s such an integral part of the series. The incident was a shock for everyone involved and very serious."

Flintoff, who was appointed England cricket captain twice, first in 2006 and 2007, retired from the international stage in 2010, briefly returning to play for Lancashire four years later.

Following his successful sporting career he became a familiar face on television, joining various reality and panel shows and appearing as the face of supermarket brand Morrisons.

In 2010 he became a team captain on Sky’s A League Of Their Own, hosted by James Corden before being crowned king of the jungle in the first series of the Australian version of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! in 2015.

After appearing in the BBC drama Love, Lies and Records in 2017, he went on to make his musical theatre debut in Kay Mellor’s Fat Friends The Musical and hosted All Star Musicals for ITV in December the same year.

He was announced in October 2018, ahead of the show’s 27th series, as a new host of Top Gear alongside Paddy McGuinness and Chris Harris.

The accident was not the first faced by Flintoff since he began working on the programme.

In February 2019, the presenter was involved in a minor incident when he crashed into a market stall in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.

In September of the same year, he crashed again while driving a three-wheel vehicle at a reported speed of 124mph during filming for Top Gear at Elvington Airfield in Yorkshire, but walked away from the incident unharmed.