Gael Clichy explains how Man City changed their culture to avoid injuries

Gael Clichy explained how Manchester City ramped up their attention to the diet of their players during his time at the club.

Clichy was already a Premier League winner with Arsenal when he made the move north in 2011 as the Blues signalled their intent to conquer English football. The left-back would win two in three years with the club before staying part of the squad for Pep Guardiola's first year in charge.

City were not shy to invest lots of money into new signings under their owners, but they also made sure that those players had the right environment to thrive. Such attention to detail was a sign to Clichy that the club were serious in their ambitions.

"I was always keen on my diet and when I signed for City, the budget for the canteen for the first team was so much. When I left six years later, it was ten times that budget," he said.

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"The way they were telling it was that if a player got injured most of the time it was because their life wasn't right. They told everyone that when you come here, we can control two things: the way you eat and the way you drink. We will invest in this and we want to make sure that every injury we have will not be a muscle injury.

"Anything can happen that you can't control but from there if you have a player earning so much every week on salary, if they are out for four weeks the amount spent on food and drink can be much less than that. Every detail counts and everything is thought about."