ANDY Flintoff's agent is in negotiations with three slimming companies to cash in on his "Fat Freddie" image.

Flintoff has made it to the national back pages this week since Monday's Guardian ran a story claiming he was "too fat for England." and the Sun greeted Thursday's man of the match performance at Old Trafford with headline "Praise the lard."

Now Andrew Chandler, Flintoff's agent who is himself known as Chubby and also represents the golfers Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke, is aiming to capitalise on what he sees as "a human interest story."

"We're in negotiations right now with three slimming companies looking to sponsor Freddie," said Chandler.

"You can't deny a week like this raises a player 's profile. There's girls in my office with no interest in cricket who now know all about Fat Freddie."

Chandler, though believes some of the criticism Flintoff has suffered has been unfair, and criticised the England management.