Arsene Wenger introduced Arsenal players to ‘vitamin injections’ and ‘Yoda’ doctor in France, says Ian Wright

Former Gunners striker hailed Wenger as ‘ahead of his time’

Former Arsenal striker Ian Wright hailed Arsene Wenger as “ahead of his time” as he recalled how the manager encouraged his players to take vitamin injections and tablets to improve their fitness.

After arriving from Japanese side Nagoya Grampus Eight in 1996, Wenger immediately revolutionised the club’s nutritional approach, along with new coaching techniques, and went on to win three Premier Leagues and seven FA Cups during his 22 years in north London.

Wright, who scored 185 goals for the club – second only to Thierry Henry – revealed the new methods Wenger had introduced upon taking charge of the club.

Speaking to Alan Shearer on Match of the Day, Wright said: “We used to have vitamin injections right into us, right into our arm.

“We used to get sent to France. I used to have to do a session with a guy, I used to go there for two weeks because when you get to 30 or older, he was worried about how you would rehabilitate after you had played games and how you recover.

“I used to have to go and see a guy, unfortunately he has passed away, but it was like going to see Yoda. He would do the fitness, he would do the food for you. You’ve got to train on the beach. You go to sleep. I used to go with Patrick.

“That’s what Arsene Wenger did, he’d take you to a place where you had to be literally the best you could be. And that’s what he done with us. The B6 tablets, the B12, the training.

“I remember when we started training in pre-season, after we finished, and you know what pre-season was normally like, running you into the ground to the point where people were vomiting. And they’d say, brilliant, that’s a good pre-season.”

“We literally hardly did anything, to the point where Tony and Lee Dixon were saying, ‘boss, we don’t feel fit enough.’

Arsene Wenger arrived at Arsenal in 1996 (Getty)

Shearer, whose Newcastle side were defeated by the Gunners in the FA Cup final in 1998, joked that the trophy should be awarded to the Magpies because Arsenal “took drugs” – an accusation Wright staunchly rebuffed.

“Basically it was stuff that everybody knows today, like Vitamin C, B12, Omega-3. He was just so far ahead of his time. Before he came, we were eating anything we wanted. We were still eating pies and chips,” he said.

“He (Wenger) literally called everyone in and he said, “you may not feel right right now, but as we move on, with everything we are doing, if you continue to take what we are telling you to take and train like we are telling you to train, we will just get stronger and he was absolutely right.

“What we found was that the foreign boys, Patrick (Vieira), Dennis (Bergkamp), all the boys, Emmanuel Petit, Remi (Garde), Nicolas (Anelka), as soon as he said take this, they took it.

“The English boys, some of us were like, “really, what’s that about? Here we go, what’s this tablet?” We wouldn’t take it for a while, and slowly you would introduce it in, and you could see they were training at a different level after six or seven weeks than you were. So when you started taking it, everybody got to the same level – we just got so strong in the games.”