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Eden Hazard Responds To Rumours He Was Overweight When He Returned For Real Madrid's Pre-Season

Eden Hazard Responds To Rumours He Was Overweight When He Returned For Real Madrid's Pre-Season

It was claimed that the Belgian was 'out of shape'...

Josh Lawless

Josh Lawless

Eden Hazard has admitted he was overweight when he signed for Real Madrid in the summer.

The Belgian secured his dream £130 million move to the Santiago Bernabeu back in June but it was reported he was 'out of shape' and 'a stone overweight' when he joined up with his teammates for pre-season.

Image: PA
Image: PA

Los Blancos president Florentino Perez was said to be unhappy that the club's record signing has not been maintaining his physique.

Now halfway through the season, Hazard has confirmed that he didn't keep up with his fitness regime while on holiday but it didn't take him long to shed the pounds.

"It's true, I can't lie," Hazard told Sport and Foot Magazine, as per MARCA, when asked if reports about him being overweight were true.

"But if I'm on vacation, I'm on vacation. I gained five kilos in the summer. I'm someone who puts on weight very quickly but I can lose it fast as well.

"When I was 18 at Lille I weighed 72 or 73 kilos, then 75 when I added some muscle and on a bad day it was 77.

"In the summer I was 80 kilos but I lost it again in 10 days."

Hazard hasn't exactly set the world alight since making the switch to Real but he is enjoying the way in which Zinedine Zidane, a hero of his, sets out his training sessions.

Image: PA
Image: PA

"The sessions are always with the ball," Hazard explained.

"I spent three years with Italian coaches like [Antonio] Conte and [Maurizio] Sarri and that's much less pleasant.

"I'm rediscovering something that I like."

In terms of his physique, it's not the first instance that the former Lille man has struggled with fitness levels going into a new campaign.

In 2018, he told Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws that he struggled with fitness at the start of the 2015-16 season with Chelsea under Jose Mourinho.

"I have had one bad year - the last six months under [Jose] Mourinho and it was partially my own doing. After winning the title, we asked Mourinho for extra holidays," he explained.

"I was totally out of shape at the start of the season, I remembered that lesson this summer [2018] - four weeks after the World Cup, I was back in training at Chelsea.

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Topics: Football News, Eden Hazard, Football, Real Madrid, La Liga