Freddie Flintoff didn't feel like he had the right to have bulimia

Freddie Flintoff wanted to ask for help with his bulimia in his 20s but felt he didn\'t have the "right" to have an eating disorder.

The 42-year-old former cricketer nearly asked a dietician for help when he was younger, but changed his mind when the expert suggested no one on his cricket team would have an eating disorder because she usually worked with women battling similar issues.

Appearing on ITV\'s \'Good Morning Britain\' on Monday (28.09.20), he revealed: "The stats of men suffering from eating disorders is high... I nearly asked for help in my early 20s. We had a dietician come in to speak to the team.

"I was at that point where I was about to say I have a problem here. She signed off by saying that she worked with a lot of women... and she wouldn\'t imagine there was anyone with an eating disorder in the room, because we were a group of lads, obviously.

"I didn\'t feel like I could speak or say anything. Being a bloke, 6ft 4 and from Preston, I\'m not meant to have an eating disorder by rights. So, you keep it hidden away and you don\'t want to speak about it."

Freddie first publicly opened up about living with the eating disorder - which is characterised by bingeing food and purging - when he shot a documentary about training to be a boxer in 2012.

However, he still feels uncomfortable talking about his eating disorder and feels uneasy with his latest documentary \'Freddie Flintoff: Living With Bulimia\' - which starts on Monday - but he\'s happy to be able to help other men who have felt the same way.

He added: "I\'m 42 now, I\'m still not 100% sure how comfortable I am with the documentary tonight going out and the reaction there will be towards it. But I suppose I\'m more comfortable in my skin these days.

"As it unravelled we spoke to some amazing people, some lads who had been through it... I started to learn a hell of a lot more about myself and how I deal with this."

Watch \'Good Morning Britain\' weekdays on ITV from 6am