As Andrew Strauss confirms "Freddie" Flintoff missed the recent team-bonding trip to Belgium because he was recovering from a hangover, Ralph Ellis discusses the implications this may have on England's chances of regaining the Ashes.

We love our larger than life heroes. Think of Ian Botham, Paul Gascoigne, Ricky Hatton. There's something magical about stars who can produce towering performances in their chosen sport, and then set off on a world class drinking spree afterwards. Sometimes the great displays even come the morning after a heavy session as Botham showed at Headingley in the magical 1981 Ashes series.

But all of those three stars reached a stage when the drinking caught up with them. And then we think only about how what should have been the last few glorious years of a career have been thrown down the drain. Botham became a shadow of the great all-rounder who had conquered the world, Gazza ended up smashing a hotel room in frustration at being dropped from a World Cup, and Hatton is being begged to retire after Manny Pacquiao floored him in two rounds.

So you have to worry this morning whether Andrew Flintoff is about to hit the same horrible wall just when he's hoping to deliver some more Ashes heroics. Four years ago we loved Freddie for his amazing feats with bat and ball against the Australians, and laughed with him as he swigged champagne on the open top bus on his way to a Downing Street reception. The stories suggested he was the player so sozzled that he tiddled in the Number Ten garden, although that's been denied. True or false it became part of his personal legend.

Now it emerges that after five months fighting to recover from a knee operation in time to face Australia, he's been on the booze again. The Daily Express led the way yesterday morning by revealing that Flintoff had been reprimanded for missing the team bus on the way to visit the trenches in Ypres during England's 'team bonding' trip to Belgium. Now it's clear it was because he was hungover from a mammoth spree after dinner the night before.

Captain Andrew Strauss has admitted as much in today's papers: "Fred has worked very hard on knowing the right and wrong times to drink but it's important he stays on the right side of that line," he says. "He's very aware that he's stuffed up on this occasion and has taken it on the chin".

All this was richly ironic given it happened a day after Flintoff had given long interviews about the work he'd done to get fit again. But it reveals there must be doubts about whether his 31-year-old battered body is capable of going through a complete Ashes series.

Flintoff is fourth favourite to be England's top wicket taker in the series at [6.4], and given his injury history, and now his drinking exploits, that price should be nearer the [25.0] you can get for him to be top batsman. Don't be fooled if he starts the summer well, trying to show that he's learned yet another lesson for his bad behaviour. The demands of a five Test series, sadly, will be bound to catch up with him.

Here's a top five of notorious sporting drinking incidents

1. The notorious Dentist's Chair drinking game in Hong Kong before Euro 96 when Paul Gascoigne and other England players were pictured laying back in the chair having drinks poured down their throats

2. Glenn Hoddle said all his players had learned from that before the 1998 World Cup - then Teddy Sheringham used the team's break to fly to Portugal and was photographed out of his skull at 6.30am

3. The 'Fredalo' affair - okay we're talking about Flintoff but this can't be left out of the list. He had to be rescued from a capsized pedalo in the early hours during the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies. He was stripped of the vice captaincy as punishment

4. Ricky Hatton followed defeat to Floyd Mayweather Junior by going on a New Year binge in Tenerife - and in four days was reported to have downed 57 pints,17 vodka and Red Bulls, four vodkas, three whisky chasers, and a bottle of Moet champagne.

5. England's rugby stars followed a 37-20 defeat by the All Blacks with a 'team bonding' trip to the Pony club bar in Auckland - beneath a strip club and massage parlour. The night ended in serious sexual assault allegations although they were subsequently withdrawn.

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