Footballer in mass train attack reveals he was stabbed seven times

• Published14 minutes ago

"I was on the train, just chilling. Suddenly, someone's come over my shoulder, and stabbed me."

Footballer Jonathan Gjoshe pauses as he recalls the harrowing events of 1 November last year.

Just weeks into his first season at Scunthorpe United, the 23 year-old had been travelling from Doncaster back to his home in London. But about an hour into the journey, the unimaginable happened.

Gjoshe was among the 11 passengers seriously injured in a knife attack on a train as it travelled through Cambridgeshire.

While it soon emerged that Gjoshe had been hurt in an incident that made headlines around the world, the defender chose to decline the many interview requests received by the club, and focus instead on his long road to recovery.

But six months on, he is finally ready to speak publicly about his ordeal for the first time. And why he is now looking for a new club.

'Running for my life'

"I got stabbed on the shoulder first", he tells BBC Sport.

"I remember jumping over the table, jumping over the chairs. I was just running down the corridor, telling people, 'there's a guy with a knife, run, I've been stabbed, run, run, run'. I was screaming. I think I was the first person that got stabbed. I felt the pain. But adrenaline kicked in.

"That split second, me jumping over the table, saved me. All I thought about was just running for my life, getting off that train. As I got down to the first or second carriage, I pulled the alarm, and was just drenched with blood."

"I was thinking I wasn't going to see my family again, if I died, and that was the main worry for me", he says. "Normally I would drive back down to London. That was the first time I got on a train to go back. What's the chance of that happening? It's crazy."

The train made an emergency stop at Huntingdon where it was met by armed police. Having been given first aid by a fellow passenger, Gjoshe managed to get himself out to the station car park, from where paramedics rushed him to hospital.

It was only after surgery that he learned he had sustained seven wounds to his bicep, shoulder and arm.

The knife, he was told by the medics, "had gone through my muscles" coming fractionally close to hitting a nerve in his arm.

When asked if he feared his footballing career could be over, he says, "I was very worried. Just thinking, 'what damage has happened to me?' I didn't have a clue until I had the surgery. They said, 'It's not much from the nerve. You're very lucky'."

In the days that followed, Gjoshe recalls: "They had to move me from ward to ward because of the media that were coming there looking for me."

Having been released from hospital, Gjoshe faced several months of rehab, only returning to full training in March, something he describes as "a big relief. I started to get the movement of my arm, day by day it was getting better. It was an amazing feeling".

Despite handling what he has been through with impressive stoicism, Gjoshe has not been on a train since the mass stabbing.

"I wouldn't want to now. You just never know know. It's best to be safe. I just can't trust anything now", he says.

'I didn't get the chance that I wanted'

Image source, Scunthorpe United FC

Having spent years playing lower-league football in London, Gjoshe's big break came last September when, having been named Corinthian Casuals' Young Player of the Year, he joined Scunthorpe on non-contract terms after impressing manager Andy Butler in pre-season.

Having jumped up four tiers in the football pyramid, he made his first-team debut against Leeds United's under-21s in the National League Cup later that month. He then faced Middlesbrough in the same competition.

Granted dual-registration, he was also loaned out to local lower-league side Bottesford Town to get extra match experience, and had actually played for them just hours before boarding the LNER train service to London.

"The Scunthorpe fans started a 'GoFund Me', [raising £4,500]. It helped me a lot. The support they showed for me, the club as well, it meant a lot," he says.

But a few days before we meet, Gjoshe learned he was among several Scunthorpe players not being retained. On 8 May, the club posted an image of him on Instagram, thanking him, and wishing "the best of luck for the future".

"Obviously [with] everything I've been through, I missed half a season… I didn't get that chance that I wanted", he says. "I was hoping they'd give me another year to prove that. But unfortunately, I didn't get that. It's quite disappointing."

Describing himself as "fully healed, and ready for whatever challenge comes through", Gjoshe now says he is "just thinking about staying fit… hoping a club will come in and give me that chance".

'I'm proud of him'

Gjoshe is speaking to BBC Sport at a five-a-side football centre in south-west London where, as a teenager, he developed his skills with the help of his former coach Nigel James, who runs sessions at the site.

The father of England internationals Reece and Lauren, both of whom Gjoshe counts as close friends, James has a keen eye for footballing talent. He believes Gjoshe has what it takes to resume his career, despite the blow of being released.

"Unfortunately, that's football, and that's how life is sometimes", says James.

"He's like a part of the family. I'm proud of him, how he's progressed through this. I'm sure there's going to be a few more opportunities, because I believe in him. He's a very good player and a good person. It all depends on someone giving him an opportunity, and Jonno taking it."

'It's made me push every day'

Last month, 32-year-old Anthony Williams was charged with 10 counts of attempted murder during the incident on 1 November, and is due to go on trial in October.

Gjoshe meanwhile is determined to remain upbeat, rather than dwelling on the cruel twist of fate that has disrupted his footballing career.

"Listen, it's happened, it's life, thank God I'm alive", he says, when asked how he is keeping positive.

"[You] can't look back at it, just got to move on. That was the only thing on my mind, getting back to football, and hoping I was going to get that chance. You've only got one life. Anything can happen… So you've got to make the most out of it. And, it's made me push every day."

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