By his own admission, Freddie Burns’ face has taken a battering in the last few months. There was the broken jaw in preseason as well as being diagnosed with Bell’s palsy, a form of facial paralysis.
If the former is an occupational hazard as a fly-half who has learnt to relish tackling at Leicester, then the latter was a freak diagnosis and a considerable shock. Although the cause of the condition, which affects around 1 in 5,000 people, is unknown, Burns believes it was the result of the cabin pressure of a long-haul flight.
The first sign something was wrong was when a friend noticed Burns winking at her. That night he went to drink a glass of water only for it to fall out of his mouth. The left side of his face was frozen.
Being unable to blink, Burns was forced to wear an eye-patch for two months but is making a full recovery. Nevertheless, the more the 25-year-old researched the condition, the more he felt compelled to publicise it and let others know that there is help available.
Burns kicks for goal against Munster
“I am not trying to be Bob Geldof but I am in a fortunate place where I can use my position to hopefully make others feel at ease,” Burns said. “When you wake up at 2-3 in the morning and you have got a problem with your face then there’s a helpline you can call with Facial Palsy UK.
“For me I had no choice being in a rugby environment, the only thing that was going to happen was the boys were going to take the piss out of me. They have not been very sensitive! The boys will say I am still ugly so it doesn’t matter.
• Leicester 17 Munster 6
“I have had a funny six months with the Bell’s palsy and then breaking my jaw. The face has taken a bit of a battering. It’s a good job that I had a girlfriend beforehand.”
Burns made his comeback two weeks ago, returning to a Leicester side transformed by the arrival of Aaron Mauger as attack coach. Their try tally is still on the low side, but there is a sense of ambition that was utterly absent last season.
It has been a godsend for Burns, a free spirit among fly-halves. Many of those natural flamboyances had to be curbed when he arrived at Welford Road from Gloucester last season. Now the shackles are coming off under the influence of Mauger, the former All Black centre, which was a key reason in his decision to sign a new contract with the club.
Burns has been delighted by the appointment of Aaron Mauger as attack coach
“As much as I'd like to adapt and become a Leicester fly-half, the way that Maugs has come in and changed the way we go about things, it certainly suits me a lot more than it did maybe last year,” Burns said.
“It is just the idea of playing what you see. He backs the players to make the right decisions. If it is not on then he doesn’t want to see any Harlem Globetrotters lobbing the ball around. But if you pick your head up under your own sticks and it is on to go then it is on to go.
“That’s the difference. We play a lot more of what is front of us rather than what’s on a piece of a paper. That’s the biggest difference.”
There will be no greater test of that new-found marriage of traditional Leicester pragmatism and new-found adventure than the visit to Saracens on Saturday. “They are very effective in how they go about their business and maybe they don’t get as much credit as they are due for the attacking abilities they do have, but we’re confident in ourselves we can sit at the top of this league and go on and win it,” Burns said. “That means going to Sarries and fronting up and performing well.”
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