Tales of Fred

"You Google the operation and get all these examples. A lot of basketball players have had it and they're much bigger and heavier and they jump higher than me. And they've made full recoveries. So I'm confident."Did he find any nightmare hits on Google – where the operation clearly failed? Flintoff chuckles: "I didn't look at them ones." The parlous state of his knee provides a constant reminder of all the injuries Flintoff has endured. He tells a quietly affecting story of how he has sometimes been reduced to sitting on the edge of his bed and calling his wife, Rachael, so that she can help him pull on his socks and shoes. For a big man, so often described in heroic terms, he has been terribly debilitated.