Didier Drogba had bizarre pre-match ritual he did before Chelsea matches and went ballistic after team-mate thwarted it

Didier Drogba is a Chelsea legend and one of the greatest strikers the Premier League has ever seen - but two of his former Stamford Bridge team-mates have revealed a bizarre pre-match routine the forward had.

The former Ivory Coast international joined Chelsea in July 2004 for £24 million and the striker went on to score 157 goals in 341 games during his first stint at the West London club, which came to an end in 2012.

After spending two seasons away, Drogba returned to Chelsea for one more campaign as he netted seven more goals in 40 additional appearances for the club before leaving again in the summer of 2015.

During his time across his two trophy laden spells at Chelsea, Drogba won four Premier League titles, a quartet of FA Cups, three League Cups and the Champions League.

In his first stint at Stamford Bridge, Drogba formed a spine of the team which claimed plenty of success and included the likes of John Terry, Petr Cech, Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard and Joe Cole.

The two Coles were in the same dressing room as Drogba for many years as they experienced lots of highs together and have discussed one peculiar pre-match routine which the Ivorian did before games - and it concerned his football boots.

Former Chelsea striker Didier Drogba. (Image: Getty)

Ashley Cole has revealed that Drogba did not want anybody to touch his football boots before a game after the kitman had put them down.

And that prompted Joe Cole to recall a time where winger Arjen Robben took the chance to put vitamin tablets in Drogba's boots, and how the forward was not best pleased to say the least when he found out about it and especially the smell they gave off.

Speaking on the Football's Greatest podcast, he said: "Talking about Didier's boots, I remember I think it was in the FA Cup that Robben put something in his boots, messing about, and I was giggling about it.

"I think it was the vitamin tablets and they stink if you took them out and put them in.

"So he put them in his boots and he went sick.

"Even though I was innocent, to this day, I still got scared in case he thought it was me, and Robben did not own up to it."

Ashley Cole then went on to describe other things that Drogba was very particular about and would be upset if they did not happen.

He said: "I've seen him lose it a little bit if his boots are not stretched by putting [in] the hot water properly, eating for the right amount of time, he don't like it."