As he sat eating his chips in his room at the Marriott Hotel in Leicester, JESSE LINGARD could never have imagined it.

In 2012, he was not playing in the Championship while on loan with the Foxes. Jamie Vardy and Harry Kane, who was also on loan, weren’t either.

Lingard shows off his impressive abs

Man Utd star Jesse Lingard revealed he would eat McDonald’s as a kid to try and bulk up

Jesse Lingard has been through quite the body transformation in recent years

ON DIFFERENT PATHS

Lingard told the Players’ Tribune in 2019: “We all got different paths in this game. There’s so many things you don’t see.

“You know what’s so crazy to me? I was sat in that Marriott back in 2012, eating my room service chips, and I was barely getting a run-out for Leicester.

Lingard with his granddad – who was a powerlifter for Team GB

“And in that same dressing room you had Jamie Vardy and Harry Kane, and they were going through the same struggles.

“We were all just trying to get a game in the Championship.

“Six years later, we’re all walking out for the World Cup semi-final, representing England. How do you explain that?”

NEEDED A LIFT

It’s been an incredible journey for Lingard, whose grandad devoted himself to making the Warrington-born youngster into a footballer.

The Manchester United ace said: “Him and my nan helped raise me. I actually used to sleep on a mattress on the floor of their room.”

It was his grandad, a former Great Britain powerlifter, who put together a makeshift gym in a garden shed for Lingard to bulk up.

His grandson thought regular trips to McDonald’s would have the same effect.

The midfielder said: “The problem was that I was so, so small. I couldn’t put on weight. I was banging down the Maccies, and I was still so skinny. My grandad would always say, ‘When you coming out to the garden with me? You need to put some muscle on’.”

SIZE MATTERED

At the age of fifteen, Lingard realized he was physically far behind other players in a tournament match against Roma.

Lingard knew he also had to hit the weights to bulk up 

He said: “I always knew my size was going to be a challenge.

“Even as I got older, I was still swimming in my kit. There’s this photo of me from the Nike Cup, and my brother always laughs about it.

“We’re playing AS Roma — I’m 15, looking like I’m ten. And these Italian lads are 15, looking like they’re 25.

“I remember walking out and seeing these boys had proper stubble, and I was thinking, ‘Sheesh’. You gotta find this photo. I look like a mascot who just run out onto the pitch for laughs.”