As we saw in our recent ‘Together: Champions Again!’ documentary series, the Portuguese international takes his preparation seriously.
Our No.3 gets the most out of himself by putting his fitness first, and that starts well before he arrives at the training ground.
The City Studios cameras were invited into his city centre apartment for a morning and saw how early he gets up and what he does before driving into the CFA.
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In his own words, he tends to be one of the first players to arrive for training, while the coaches admit that he pushes them to be at their best every day.
But as a match approaches, how does the 25-year-old make sure he’s in tip-top condition?
He said: “The day before usually starts with the training then it depends whether we are home or away because the away games is a routine of travel, hotels, sleeping and eating, sleeping, eating.
“For a home game, we train in the morning the day before, then have a meal afterwards and then head home for a nap of up to an hour.
“I try not to go out and stay home and relax so I’m not using extra effort. I will usually cook my own meal in the evening. And yes, watch my movie and that’s basically it.”
“I am quite versatile, but I do like movies that are based on true stories as it adds a little something.”
He does allow himself to relax on the odd occasion though, heading to his favourite restaurant in Manchester.
“My favourite restaurant is the one I go to the most - The Ivy - and my favourite meal there is the popcorn shrimp. The best and healthiest meal this week was fillet steak, spaghetti and loads of vegetables,” he summarised.
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