Anthony Joshua has broken his silence on the deaths of his two 'special' best friends in a car crash in Nigeria in December.

The boxer survived the crash with minor injuries but his long-time friends Sina Ghami and Kevin Latif Ayodele were killed after their SUV ploughed into a stationary truck on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in Makun, Nigeria.

Ayodele was Joshua's personal trainer while Ghami was his strength coach.  

Sharing a graphic of the duo on Instagram, Joshua wrote: 'Thank you for all the love and care you have shown my brothers. I didn’t even realise how special they are. 

'I’ll just be walking with them and cracking jokes with them, not even knowing God kept me in the presence of great men. 

'100% it’s tough for me, but I know it’s even tougher for their parents. I have a strong mind, and I believe God knows their hearts. May God have mercy on my brothers.'

Anthony Joshua's friends Latif Ayodele (centre) and Sina Ghami (right) both died in the crash 

Joshua shared this graphic of his personal trainer and strength coach on Instagram 

AJ was discharged from hospital late on New Year's Eve and paid an emotional visit to a funeral home to pay his respects before they were repatriated.

Kolawole Omoboriowo has known AJ for eight years and broke the news to his family about the accident.

He coordinates Joshua's logistics in Nigeria and described the crash as 'a crazy nightmare' and said Ayodele, one of the deceased, was 'like a twin brother' to the boxer.

Omoboriowo told Sky News: 'What is actually in my head now is: "How do we get AJ out of that traumatised situation?". And that is just the only thing that everybody is worried about right now.

'Right now, everybody might think AJ is okay. But we don't know how he's going to take it.

'But right now we just want everybody to actually like give him a moment to actually relax, rest, and we pick it up from there.

He added: 'We just need to keep praying for AJ, for God to give him the strength to be able to carry on with these losses.'

We had little insight into how Joshua had taken the tragic event until now. But UFC fighter Kamaru Usman did have a video call with him on December 30 while he was recovering in the Duchess International Hospital.

Anthony Joshua was in a horrific car crash that killed two of his best friends in Nigeria 

During the call with Usman, Joshua was seated inside a treatment room and recounted the incident while appearing to have bandages on his head and torso.

He began by saying: 'Obviously, two of my close friends passed away'.

Usman, a former UFC welterweight champion, questioned whether Ghami and Ayodele had been seated in the front of the black Lexus when it crashed.