Freeman bulks up on potatoes to be new England bolter
➤ The skills were always there for the Saints full-back, but size was a problem. A crash diet put him on track for Jones’ call-up
When Northampton fullback Tommy Freeman received a phone call from England’s new attack coach, Martin Gleeson, last week, he took it as a nice ego boost.
Gleeson told Freeman that he was on their radar, gave him some pointers to work on and concluded the conversation by saying “you never know what’s round the corner”.
For Freeman, who has made just 19 appearances for Northampton, that was received as a tantalising glimpse of future possibilities.
Coming into the campaign off the back of a what he calls a “cleanup” operation on both knees which wiped out his off-season, the 20-year-old was hoping to build up his fitness and form after being named Northampton’s breakthrough player last season.
Then, on Monday, just before a team meeting, Freeman missed a call. When he rang back, he was told that he would be included in England’s 34-man squad for the autumn internationals, much to his shock.
“He [Gleeson] said you never know what’s round the corner, but I didn’t think it would be this soon round the corner,” Freeman says.
“I quickly called my mum and I don’t think she could believe it. She was taken aback, there was a moment of silence, then I said ‘are you happy?’
“I think she ran straight into the sitting room where Dad was, then I had to shoot off straight away.”
England head coach Eddie Jones says that he has been watching Freeman since he made his debut for Saints in the 2019-20 season, taking a shine to both his physique and reading of the game.
Jones also likes players who have had to do things the hard way, and despite his serene progress through the Saints academy to the first team, Freeman is well acquainted with adversity and suffering.
Aged 16, he was released by the Leicester Tigers academy. The skills were never an issue; he felt he read the game much better than his peers. Physically, however, he was well behind them and was let go for being too small.
“It was just the size and speed that let me down,” Freeman says. “I remember I could always see a gap and go through it, but I couldn’t carry on running. They would say I was running through treacle.”
It was at this point that a teacher at Culford School in Bury St Edmunds advised him to go to Moulton College in Northamptonshire, which has its own dedicated sports academy. Charlie Sadler, the teacher in question, had followed the same path through to Northampton and England age-grade honours before he was forced to retire through injury. It proved to be inspired advice as Freeman got on to the books of the Saints academy. “In my first year, I probably hadn’t developed much physically, then in my second year I shot right up, speed went through the roof, I played really well in games and that was it, I got picked up in the academy,” Freeman recalls.
The battle was far from over. When he had shot up in height, his frame needed filling out. This meant an intense diet, which led Freeman to empathise with the geese being bred for foie gras. “It was eating when you’re not hungry. I remember going home, and it was a case of eating because I had to eat, not because it was dinner time. Mum was saying the other day, ‘I remember when you used to come home and eat, your head was closer to the table, it was just about getting it in’.” Protein shakes were a constant companion, but the worst torment were the heaps of potatoes he had to consume with nearly every meal. “I could not eat them without chorizo at one point because it was the same dull, floury taste in your mouth.” The weight gain programme succeeded with Freeman putting on 2½ stone, so Jones described him on Monday as “a big, strong, strapping lad”. However, it did come at a cost. Freeman struggled to cope under his new-found mass of 15st 7lb. So, this summer he flew to Sweden for a knee operation under Hakan Alfredson, who has worked with football legend Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
“Yeah, I was talking to Tom Wood and Stephen Myler and they said they had it done when they were 27, 28,” Freeman says. “I was 20, that is very young, but it was definitely needed. It was a bit of loading and how much weight I’d put on.
“I came in quite light and lanky, needed to put a bit of weight on to match the physicality, I did it in quite a short space of time, two years. The load and pressure on the knees didn’t help, but it was worth doing. I’m feeling good now postoperation.”
‘I remember going home and it was a case of eat because I had to, not because I was hungry’