Eric Bailly has revealed his Manchester United team-mates are still not eating desserts following Cristiano Ronaldo’s return in the summer.
The Ivorian’s claim comes after reserve goalkeeper Lee Grant shed light on the dietary shift back in September, suggesting every player turned their noses up at “apple crumble and custard” during an early club meal in the presence of Ronaldo.
The Portuguese superstar has built a reputation for the extreme levels and seriousness he takes his diet, sculpting a near-Adonis physique and staying at the top of his game at the age of 36 as a result — it’s a level of dedication almost unprecedented at any level of sport.
And Bailly has now echoed Grant’s initial claim that Ronaldo’s dedication to his diet has been rubbing off on some, if not all of Man Utd’s playing squad, with sweet treats yet to return to the menu at Carrington.
“We’ve stopped [eating dessert],” he told Poet & Vuj. “All the players stopped because it’s good, you need to change sometime.
“Ronaldo has been the best for a long time, why? Your body, you need to take care of it.”
Back in September, just a few weeks after Ronaldo rejoined the Old Trafford club, Grant went into a little more detail about the dietary fascination of the five-time Ballon d’Or winning, revealing one player even asked him: “What has Cristiano got on his plate?”
“You’ve got some apple crumble and custard or you’ve got a bit of brownie and cream or whatnot,” Grant told talkSPORT.
“I tell you now, not one player touched the apple crumble and custard, not one player went up for that brownie because everybody was sat down.
“One of the lads said to me, “What has Cristiano got on his plate?”
“So we were having a little goosey gander at what he has got and obviously it is the cleanest, most healthy plate you can imagine.
“And it just cracked me up how not one single player dared get up and have that junk food that was laid out.”