Ex Manchester United left-back, Patrice Evra has said he played with chicken in his boot for four months when he was at Monaco.
Evra sustained an injury while playing for his country, but the then-manager Didier Deschamps wanted him to play through the pain and the doctors in charge of getting him fit suggested that putting chicken into his boot would help.
His chicken-aided performances were so brilliant that Manchester United bought him from Monaco and he won five league titles, three League Cups and a Champions League at the club.
Evra has touched on how it felt. His words, “People talk about when we made the Champions League final in 2004, but the craziest part [of my career] at Monaco came after I had played a game for the French U21 team.”
“An opponent had stamped on my foot and damaged it badly. In hospital I told the Monaco coach, Didier Deschamps, ‘It’s too painful. I can’t play. I can’t even walk!’
“But the team needed me, so the doctors tried everything to take away the pain. Nothing worked. Then someone from the club staff said, ‘Why don’t you just go old school?’
“Everyone said, ‘What do you mean?’
“He said, ‘Just slide a chicken down his boot.’
“It sounded crazy but, you know me, I’m open minded. So I went to my local butcher. The butcher said, ‘What do you want?’
“I said, ‘A piece of chicken. But just a tiny one.’
“He said, ‘A tiny one? How come?”
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