Anthony Joshua has returned to the gym in a bid to recover from the devastating Nigeria car crash which left two of his closest friends dead.

‘AJ’, the former world heavyweight champion, was left with minor injuries, but was seen in agony exiting the vehicle from the accident near Lagos on 29 December.

The boxing world has united to pay tribute to Joshua’s former teammates Sina Ghami and Latif ‘Latz’ Ayodele, with the boxer also sharing a touching post on social media.

And now Joshua is looking to revisit his craft, despite Eddie Hearn urging caution over a resumption of his boxing career, with a video shared by the 36-year-old on Snapchat.

Joshua can be seen working out, hitting pads, exercising and riding a stationary bike.

One of the clips carried the slogan “mental strength therapy”.

Joshua, who was born in Watford to Nigerian parents, was on holiday in Nigeria following his win over Jake Paul in Miami 10 days before the crash.

Ghami acted as his strength and conditioning coach, while Ayodele was a trainer.

On Wednesday, promoter Eddie Hearn said he believes Joshua will return to boxing when he has had time to heal.

He told Sky Sports: “He will need his time physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually before he makes a decision on his future. I do think he will want to return to boxing, but that will be his decision when the time is right.

“It is certainly not a conversation I’ll be having with him any time soon. The only conversation is ‘are you OK?’ and sometimes we find people will give that facade of being OK, but what happened to him is not normal and heartbreaking for all involved.

“When the time is right, I believe he will make his decision and you will hear it from him. That is the only voice you should listen to in that respect and we’ll give him his time to make that decision and heal.”

PA contributed to this article