Seven stab wounds. That is what Jonathan Gjoshe sustained on 1 November last year when a knife attack tore through a train travelling through Cambridgeshire. Six months on, the 23-year-old defender has spoken publicly about his ordeal for the first time — and confirmed he is now searching for a new club after being released by Scunthorpe United.

What happened on the train

Gjoshe had been travelling from Doncaster back to his home in London on an LNER service, having played for dual-registration side Bottesford Town just hours earlier. Roughly an hour into the journey, he felt the first blow from behind.

"I got stabbed on the shoulder first," he told 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."

Gjoshe believes he was the first passenger struck. He says adrenaline kept him moving and that the split-second decision to vault the table in front of him almost certainly changed the outcome. Some fellow passengers, he recalls, initially thought it was a Halloween prank — the attack came the morning after Halloween — and hesitated. He did not. He pulled the emergency alarm once he had made it towards the front of the train, arriving at the lever "drenched in blood".

The train made an emergency stop at Huntingdon station, where armed police were waiting. A fellow passenger gave him first aid before paramedics took him to hospital. Surgery revealed seven wounds across his bicep, shoulder and arm. Doctors told him the blade had gone through muscle and had come fractionally close to a nerve. "You're very lucky," they said.

The fear for his career

Gjoshe admits his first thoughts after surgery were about whether he would ever play football again. "I was very worried. Just thinking, 'what damage has happened to me?' I didn't have a clue until I had the surgery," he says. The nerve had been spared — narrowly — and after several months of rehabilitation he returned to full training in March. "I started to get the movement of my arm, day by day it was getting better. It was an amazing feeling," he said.

He has not boarded a train since the attack. "I just can't trust anything now," he says.

His journey to Scunthorpe — and what comes next

Gjoshe's path to Scunthorpe had already been an unlikely one. He had spent years in lower-league London football before being named Corinthian Casuals' Young Player of the Year. That form persuaded Scunthorpe manager Andy Butler to hand him a non-contract deal last September — a jump of four tiers in the football pyramid. He made his first-team debut against Leeds United's under-21s in the National League Cup and also faced Middlesbrough in the same competition.

When news of the stabbing spread, the club's fanbase launched a GoFundMe appeal that raised £4,500. "The support they showed for me, the club as well, it meant a lot," Gjoshe says.

Despite that goodwill, he was informed in early May that he would not be retained for next season. Scunthorpe posted a tribute to him on Instagram on 8 May. He is now a free agent at 23, physically recovered but carrying the psychological weight of what happened — he was one of 11 passengers seriously injured in an attack that drew global attention.

"I was thinking I wasn't going to see my family again," he says, quietly. "That was the main worry for me."

The football search starts now. After everything that preceded it, that feels like the straightforward part.

Frequently asked

What happened to Jonathan Gjoshe on the train?
Gjoshe was stabbed seven times — wounds to his bicep, shoulder and arm — during a mass knife attack on an LNER train travelling through Cambridgeshire on 1 November 2024. He was one of 11 passengers seriously injured. The train made an emergency stop at Huntingdon where he received first aid and was taken to hospital by paramedics.
Is Jonathan Gjoshe still at Scunthorpe United?
No. Gjoshe was informed in May 2026 that he would not be retained by Scunthorpe United. He joined the club on non-contract terms in September 2024 but is now a free agent following his recovery from the stabbing.
How long did it take Jonathan Gjoshe to recover from his injuries?
Gjoshe spent several months in rehabilitation after surgery on his arm. He returned to full training in March 2026 — roughly four months after the November 2024 attack. Doctors told him the knife had narrowly missed a nerve in his arm.