Footballer breaks silence after surviving horrific train stabbing in Cambridgeshire

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FT Desk

A National League footballer has spoken to the media for the first time since surviving multiple stab wounds aboard a train in Cambridgeshire last year.

In November 2025, a serious stabbing attack took place on a train travelling from Doncaster to London King’s Cross. The incident began shortly after the train left Peterborough station in Cambridgeshire. According to witnesses, a man suddenly began attacking passengers with a knife, causing panic throughout the carriage as people tried to escape, hide, or protect one another.

Passengers described scenes of confusion and fear, with some locking themselves in toilets while others moved between carriages to get away from the attacker. Several people were injured during the attack, and early reports said that some victims suffered life-threatening wounds. A rail employee and some passengers were praised afterwards for stepping in to help and trying to stop the violence until police arrived.

A 32-year-old man named Anthony Williams was later charged with several counts of attempted murder and weapons offences.

One of the victims was Scunthorpe United's Jonathan Gjoshe, who was travelling back home to London from Doncaster.

"I was on the train, just chilling. Suddenly, someone's come over my shoulder, and stabbed me," he said in an interview with the BBC.

"I got stabbed on the shoulder first. 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."

Gjoshe says that people initially thought he was joking when he sped through the train, covered in his own blood, warning people to run.

"Some thought it was a joke at first, because obviously it was Halloween the day before. Some people ran, some just sat there, but I thought he was coming for me," he explained.

"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. 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."

Doctors would subsequently tell Gjoshe that he suffered seven stab wounds in total, though he was also told he was lucky the knife did not go through a nerve in his arm that could have led to fatal blood loss.

The 23-year-old returned to training with Scunthorpe in March and although the physical wounds may have healed, the mental ones haven't as he reveals he hasn't been on a train since he was attacked.

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

This is Gjoshe's first season at Scunthorpe and, unfortunately, having missed most of the season, his contract hasn't been renewed.

"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."

After playing in the lower leagues in London most of his career, he made his way to Scunthorpe after impressing for Corinthian Casuals.

He says he's now "fully healed" and hopes that a club will see his potential to sign him this summer.