In between buffing and burnishing his alarmingly sculpted physique, Cristiano Ronaldo likes to take 3am ice baths to boost his metabolism. He eats six high-protein meals a day, rarely drinks alcohol and refuses soft drinks. Away from the constant task of tweaking his already unimprovable musculature, Ronaldo relaxes by swimming, sleeping a strict eight hours and – oh yes – doing 3,000 sit ups a day in front of the television.
It is of course pointless to compare mere mortals with such extreme athletic obsession. But this does still seem to be the lot of Wayne Rooney, in part because of the similarity in ages (Ronaldo is eight months older), the bloom of their shared youth at Manchester United and above all the increasingly stark divergence in their physical capacity as the early 30s begin to bite.
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