Andrew Flintoff

Former England player Andrew Flintoff opened up about his battle with bulimia and admitted that he can’t see old images of himself playing games because he’s “ashamed” of his appearance. The 42-year-old revealed that he was diagnosed with an eating disorder during his playing career in 2014.

“I don’t want to be a statistic,” he said in the BBC documentary Freddie Flintoff: Living With Bulimia, which will air Monday. “I don’t want it to be read that something has happened to me,” he added.

“I became known as a fat cricketer,” Flintoff said. “That was horrible. That’s when I started doing it.

“It was then that I started to feel bad after meals. Then things started to happen for me as a player ”.

According to various studies, at least 1.5 million people in the UK, of which 25 percent are men, have an eating disorder such as bulimia.

Stating that the focus was on his weight during the early part of his international playing career, Flintoff detailed how he would fall ill during England’s iconic 2005 Ashes series against Australia, where he played an important role in helping his team retain the urn for the first time. time in 18 years.

“Everyone was happy with me,” he said. “My weight was going down. It was like, ‘I’m sending this. He just kept going and was doing it the whole time. “:” I scored my first hundred in New Zealand in Christchurch. I went out at lunchtime and threw up my lunch.

“I knew all the terrain and where it was easiest [to throw up]. Lord was so much easier because the bathrooms were away from the dressing rooms. ”

He kept it a secret, as “I didn’t want my relationship in the locker room to change, I knew what the reaction would be.”

“I remember when I started to get sick, I felt it was my decision. I was criticized in the newspapers for being overweight. I was known as the fat cricketer and I was the quick fix to do it.

“Then I went from doing it if I had a drink and if I had eaten foods that I did not want to eat or felt like I should not eat, to doing most meals.

“That’s when he started controlling me.”

Facing her bulimia, Flintoff said, “I’m not going to lie, I enjoyed the results.

“I don’t know if it’s just being a guy, you feel like you should be able to stop him.”

But while feeling “in control” of the situation, he admitted, “I should probably seek help. I know it’s a problem and I know it needs to be fixed.”