Ireland prop Furlong battling 'potato addiction'

Irish tighthead Tadhg Furlong is said to be battling a potato addiction – according to his team’s nutritionist at least.

Balls.ie are reporting that the 122kg British and Irish Lion is consuming as many as six to ten potatoes a day.

Leinster nutritional coach Daniel Davey says that prop is struggling to keep his love of the starch root vegetable under control.

“Tadhg Furlong loves his potatoes. So he might be having six potatoes or ten potatoes [a day],” Davey told Balls.ie

“So then, I have to say ‘Tadhg, you’re having too many potatoes’. You can do that the day of a game because potatoes are a good source of energy, but days you’re sitting on the couch you’re not going to need ten spuds.

“He has a kind of potato addiction. Tadhg is somebody you can have fantastic conversations with, because he is from the country and he appreciates food.

“If you put good food in front of Tadhg, he’ll enjoy it, and not just potatoes. But he’s been in Dublin for a while now, so his palette has expanded!”

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The addiction may have in fact taken hold in 2014. In an interview with the 42.ie Furlong said he would explain away his love of ‘spuds’ as – in fact – ‘carb loading’.

Referring to Leinster’s annual Christmas Derby with Munster he said: “But if I’m involved in the Munster game – it is a day after Christmas day – so I can call it carb-loading and have a few extra spuds on my plate.”

Furlong has previously spoken of the correlation between his weight and age.

“I always struggled with my weight as a young fella, so I had this weird thing where I was always the same weight as my age.” Furlong told Seconds Captains live. “So you imagine until I was about 19 or 20, I hit 20 stone when I was 21 and I kind of left that there, because it wasn’t healthy to continue.”