CHELSEA legend Eden Hazard put so little effort into training that he couldn’t even be bothered to tie up his boot laces.
That’s according to his former team-mate John Obi Mikel, who opened up about what the Belgian was like behind-the-scenes.
They were team-mates at Stamford Bridge for five years and the duo won the Premier League, FA Cup and Europa League together.
Hazard was Chelsea’s star man in that period, scoring 110 goals in 352 games and he was even crowned the Premier League Player of the Year in 2014/15.
But Obi Mikel claims all his talent was effortless and the winger was lazy in training.
The former Nigerian international told the Vibe with Five show: “He achieved all that he achieved without putting in effort, imagine if he did.
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“This guy comes to training and he doesn’t tie his boots up, he just stands there with his hands in his pants.”
Obi Mikel also claims if any manager questioned his intensity he would “just mumble” and when team-mates threatened not to pass to him he would encourage them to play without him.
He also apparently told John Terry to not “disturb” him when the captain demanded more effort.
Jose Mourinho previously claimed Hazard is “awful” and “doesn’t work much” away from matchday.
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He eventually left Chelsea for Real Madrid in 2019 in an £88.3million deal.
However, Hazard struggled to perform in Spain and played just 76 times as he battled with injury.
Mikel says that he opted to put effort in during Real Madrid training sessions and he now believes it led to fitness problems as his body was not used to the extra workload.
Hazard decided to hang up his boots in October this year after his Los Blancos contract expired.
The 32-year-old even turned down multiple offers from Saudi Arabian clubs as big as £1m-a-week as he already has plenty of money, according to Obi Mikel.
He has revealed several Chelsea stories since retiring in 2021, explaining how players knew if a manager was going to be sacked by Roman Abramovich.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
