Man Utd have five established defenders in Eric Bailly, Phil Jones, Victor Lindelof, Marcos Rojo and Chris Smalling. Smalling is one of the important member of the team who appeared the most number of times as a centre-back last season. The injury prone centre-back has been benefiting from injury problems. The secret for this transformation as claimed by the 28-year old himself is his vegan diet. There are many more factors too but this is the massive one for his recovery.
As the time has passed, the number of appearances made by the defender in a single season have increased because of eating more good things and becoming more conscious about right kind of diet. The fact that he has started consuming more plant-based products in the last couple of years, has made it possible for the defender to perform well.
The transformation of becoming a vegan started because of his wife. His wife is a vegan and used to cook vegan food at home, which made Smalling eat vegan food half the times. Slowly he started cutting his diet; red meat being the major one. Now the defender is fully grown vegan and a plant-based foodie.
Smalling in an interview said: “Obviously, the last couple of years it’s been more plant-based and I do think that’s a factor. Ultimately, what you’re feeding yourself has a bearing on how you’re going to perform.” We all will look forward for the vegan defender to strike away the ball from his half; the same way he did to meat.