Freddie Flintoff exclusive interview

THIS is the £2,500 machine Andrew Flintoff is praying will save his cricket career.

The Lancashire all-rounder has to strap himself to the contraption for EIGHT hours every day as he starts his gruelling rehabilitation from his latest operation.

The state-of-the-art Continuous Passive Motion equipment was prescribed by surgeon Andy Williams and is designed to bend the 31-year-old Ashes hero's knee up to 1,500 TIMES a day.

And, in an exclusive News of the World interview, Flintoff revealed: "I had a choice of either using this machine or doing three sets of 500 knee bends a day, so I thought the machine might be the way forward.

"I strap my leg into it for eight hours a day. It bends my knee up and down all the time and makes sure the movement is controlled.

"I will have the machine on most of the time, even when I'm sleeping. The hard part is getting used to having your leg strapped into a machine for most of the day. It's designed to help with the healing but, inevitably, my right leg is going to waste away a bit and the muscles are going to disappear. There's not a lot I can do about it because I can't bear any weight on my right leg for six to eight weeks."

Flintoff underwent keyhole surgery in London on Monday night - just a day after helping England beat Australia at the Oval to regain the Ashes.

It was the second op on his troublesome knee and the NINTH of his career, following four on his left ankle, two for hernias and another on his back.

"Freddie" left hospital with his wife Rachael on Tuesday and will be on crutches for up to eight weeks.

But he needed a shot of morphine to dull the pain following his surgery and has now started his gruelling rehabilitation programme.

"The day after the Ashes win I went for a scan, which confirmed my knee problem had got worse," added Freddie.

"I was really struggling towards the end of the final Test."

Surgeon Williams then performed an arthroscopy and microfracture to two small areas in the player's right knee.

The op involved drilling small holes into Flintoff's knee bone to increase the bloody supply to the bone and stimulate cartilage growth.

"I woke up about 90 minutes after the operation in pain and was given more morphine to ease that," declared Freddie.

Hero

"I didn't feel too flash when I came around and Rachael drove me home the following day. The drive wasn't pleasant because I had to keep my leg up for the whole journey.

"The next few weeks are quite crucial in the recovery and I'm not supposed to put any weight on my knee.

"In the past when I've been on crutches for two or three weeks my leg has been terrible, so this time it's going to be awful. I will see the specialist in a couple of weeks and then have another eight-week check-up. It's only then we'll know the extent of where I'm up to."

Super Fred announced his retirement from Test cricket during the Ashes after admitting his 16-stone body could no longer cope with five-day cricket.

But the nation's hero, who took 226 wickets and scored 3,845 runs for England in a 79-match Test career and was awared the MBE for his 2005 Ashes brilliance, still wants to wear the Three Lions in one-day and Twenty20 matches.

He also wants to play in the 2015 World Cup.

"I have set myself a target of returning for the tour to Bangladesh, which is from mid-Febuary to the middle of March, but whether that's realistic or not, I'm not sure," admitted Flintoff. "You get every Tom, Dick and Harry on TV and surgeons I've never met making predictions and assumptions about my injury. The worst thing is that people listen to them. The surgeon I've worked with knows what he's doing, so I will continue to work with him and be guided by his advice.

"There is a possibility I may not play again. It's something I'm going to have to be prepared for in case the operation is not as successful as I hope.

"There will be a question mark in my mind about whether I have played my last game until I know how the operation has turned out.

"I'd be lying if I said it hadn't crossed my mind, but the success rate for an operation like this is pretty good.

"The bottom line is that if it doesn't work, there's nothing I can do about it.

"But I don't want my career to end like this. My Test career ended with a high by England winning the Ashes and I'd like to finish my one-day career by winning the World Cup."

Williams has previously operated on England Rugby World Cup winner Lawrence Dallaglio and Everton defender Phil Jagielka.

And Flintoff added: "I did my research before I decided to go ahead with the operation. Basketball players, who are even heavier than me, seem to have it done a lot and they come back from it.

"There have also been cases which haven't been successful, but the surgeon is confident."

Pain

Flintoff's knee problem was diagnosed as a degenerative condition, caused by playing 11 years for England.

His knee flared up again while playing for the Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League in April.

And it forced him to miss the whole of England's Fourth Test defeat to Australia at Headingley.

"Rehabilitation is never easy, but for the time being I'm just concentrating on these next few weeks of being on the couch," he said.

"The incentive is there for me. If I want to play cricket again, if I want to play for England again, I have to do this.

"Whether I like it or not, I'm just going to have to get on with it. After the Bangladesh tour, there is the IPL and then the ICC World Twenty20 tournament in the West Indies.

"So there is a lot to go at if I can get fit. I know it's going to take time.

"It was mentioned by some that the operation was routine, but I don't see playing through pain for the last five weeks during the Ashes, having my knee fractured in at least two places, being on crutches for eight weeks; on a machine for eight hours a day and the months of rehabilitation afterwards as routine.

"The frustrating thing is that my kids (Holly, 4, Corey, 3 and Rocky, 1) all want to play with me, but I can't move off the couch. The one good thing about all this time off is spending time together as a family. And, although it's not great being stuck on a couch, I'm going to try and enjoy it with Rachael and the kids."

Flintoff admitted hiding in a toilet at the Oval to stop anyone seeing him cry after England's phenomenal 197-run win last Sunday sealed a thrilling 2-1 series victory. And he admits he is going to miss the buzz of playing in the Ashes.

"When you walk out in front of all those people, especially in the Ashes, it's like being someone else," he declared.

"It's almost like being on Stars in your Eyes. You can walk through the curtains and declare: 'Tonight I'll be Freddie Flintoff.' I do my stuff on the field and then when I get home I am back to normal, I'm Andrew again.

"It's only when you come to the end of it that you realise just how good it was.

"I'm not saying I won't enjoy being at home, because I will. This is a new chapter in my life and hopefully I can get the best of both worlds.

"I can be more of a family man and, providing I make a full recovery, hopefully I can play in front of big crowds again for England.

"I suppose the key is to find something in my life to challenge me. I want to find challenges which take me out of my comfort zone when I finally finish playing.

"I would like to help out more with the Andrew Flintoff Foundation, which is an organisation Rachael and I set up to help children's charities."

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