Andrew Flintoff Quotes

If you see me when I first burst onto the scene, you see how quickly I could turn for a big lad and how fast I was up and down the pitch. Then I started picking and choosing my time to go forwards because I was scared of my hamstring going or my knee not dealing with it.

My problem isn't death but old age. I fret about my lack of balance, my buckling knee, my difficulty standing up and sitting down.

I have bad feet and I have weak ankles.

Having a normal knee would make life a lot easier.

I had aches and pains when I played. No player is ever 100 percent, 80 percent, 85 percent. Guys that play 158 or 162 or 145, we are all in the same boat.

It's rare enough as an older generation player that you're 100% fit - there's always something niggling.

I sometimes lament the fact that I do not have the benefit of a complete and ailment free body structure.

At 49, I find it a little bit difficult to run these days. I've got grade four tears in both Achilles, shin splints, I got no cartilage the toes in my right foot, I've got bone marrow edemas under both knees, I've got one degenerating hip - that's the problem you get.

The decision to retire was quite an easy one for me because by that stage my knees were so badly gone. If I had been like Martina Navratilova and my body had let me I would have carried on playing a lot longer.

It's physically hard for me to work. I start to break down, physically. My joints start. I get weepy eyes. I don't sleep well. I was never a hard worker, I guess. So the voiceover work ethic is really great for me - couple days a month, two hours a day.

Not many people know, but my joints are extremely hypermobile, and that's why I'm more prone to injuries. That's why most of my major injuries were with the joints. I had a career-threatening wrist injury where picking up a fork to feed myself was a problem, and the thought of playing tennis again was so far from my mind.

I don't mind getting old except for the pain. I have two new knees, so going downstairs is not perfect. Nobody tells you about the pain.

I've paid the price over the years, though: a lot of injuries and surgeries related to my sports career; my hips and knees took a lot of wear and tear.

Quite often, while I'm getting up in the morning, I think my warranty is running out on these body parts because it's not working quite the way it used to.

That's the worst part about all of the injuries and the criticism. It would be one thing if I had been healthy for five years and just sucked when I was on the court. But I can't prove what I can do because I can't stay healthy. Not having control over the situation makes it tough.

I'd love to still be able to play a bit of football, but my knees are shot to pieces.

I don't think I have too many filmmaking years left since I hurt my spine and knee.

I go into every fight with a bad back and overweight and a damn-near diabetic.

I was missing the main weight-bearing bone in both legs. And the left leg, I didn't have a full knee. It was a floating knee. I had six toes. My hands were webbed, and I also have one kidney. I don't have a full bicep on my right side. Thank God my hair didn't get ruined.

When I retired, I stopped playing because of my body, so much pain and injuries.

For a lot of players, it's not that they don't want to play anymore or that they get tired of it or bored of it. It's that their bodies give out.

When you get into the Finals, I don't think anybody is completely healthy.

One of the worst things about ageing is the waning of your physical powers. I live in a house with 64 stairs, and I cannot run up and down them any more; my knee has conked out.

I was too big to even contemplate exercise. I had to use a walking stick and a wheelchair to get around.

The biggest challenges are in the same vein. It's about retaining all that stuff. Also, the physical stuff is not as easy as we originally thought. I play a lot of sports and I remember saying, "Oh, I'll be fine, running around or doing anything."