Sometimes incredible players just don’t bother to turn up in training sessions.
Dele Alli was seen as a lazy trainer at Tottenham despite his brilliance on the pitch at times, while Carlos Tevez famously didn’t work hard in training at Manchester City.
Speaking on The High Performance Podcast, John Obi Mikel has now outed one of his Chelsea teammates for being lazy in training.
Indeed, according to the midfielder, Eden Hazard was the worst in training at Chelsea, claiming that the Belgian never even bothered in those sessions.
Eden Hazard was terrible in Chelsea training
Mikel spoke about what it was like to play and train with Hazard
According to the Nigerian, the £88m man never bothered in training, claiming that he would just walk around.
Meanwhile, Mikel also noted that Hazard’s diet at Chelsea was also terrible, but despite all of this, he’d often be Chelsea’s best player at the weekend.
“What was he like to train with and play with?
“Training the worst guy. The worst guy in training,” Mikel said.
“The worst. The worst guy in training. He never trained.”
“Eden Hazard never trained?” The host asked.
“No, never trained. No, no, no. Yeah, he just stands there. I mean, he doesn’t even lace his boots. His boots were unlaced,” Mikel added.
“You know, he puts his hands in his pants during training. He walks around. He doesn’t train.
But the managers just let him get away with it. But then come the weekend, 3pm, he wins us the game.”
“He eats chocolate. He eats everything. And we’re all sitting there trying to eat like, you know, good diet to be able to perform.
“But he eats all that cr– and goes on the pitch and he’s the best player.”
Eden Hazard’s decline in numbers
Hazard was the best player in the Premier League for a time, there’s no doubt about that.
However, as Hazard got older, he started to decline, rapidly.
Indeed, while Hazard had natural abilities that most players could only dream of, his performances fell off a cliff as he entered his 30s.
| Age | Games | Goals | Assists | |
| 2018/19 | 28 | 37 | 16 | 15 |
| 2019/20 | 29 | 16 | 1 | 6 |
| 2020/21 | 30 | 14 | 3 | 1 |
| 2021/22 | 31 | 18 | 0 | 1 |
| 2022/23 | 32 | 6 | 0 | 1 |
Mikel says that Hazard didn’t work hard and he didn’t eat properly, and that may well be why his top level career was over so soon.
Hazard was an immense footballing power at his peak, but, unfortunately, he didn’t quite have the longevity of some of his contemporaries.
