Newcastle star ‘Need to take good care of myself…my body, my sleep, my diet, everything’
Before arriving at Newcastle United, Christian Atsu had only made four league starts in the past two seasons.
Out on loan at Malaga, Everton and Bournemouth, a combination of injuries, indifferent form and fitness issues had limited the number of games the winger was getting.
Realising that the solution could be in his own hands, the on-loan winger says that he looked at how he was looking after himself – his sleep, his diet, everything.
Christian Atsu feels that at last he is feeling the benefits of those changes and he believes that he can succeed at Newcastle as part of a promoted team.
In just over two months time the Ghanaian international turns 25 and is surely desperate to be not yet another player ruined by Chelsea.
Signed from Porto, this is the fourth season Christian Atsu has been a Chelsea player and yet still hasn’t played a single minute of competitive football for them.
Newcastle fans have certainly liked what they have seen so far and along with DeAndre Yedlin, he is a player with electric pace who could potentially be able to take the step up to the Premier League in his stride.
Christian Atsu talking to official NUFC match programme:
“At Bournemouth, I had a lot of injuries that brought me setbacks in my football career. I left in January to Malaga and when I went there I had another injury again. It was so frustrating, but I thought: ‘I need to take good care of myself’.
“I saw that I have to be responsible for these kind of things, so I tried to change how I eat, my sleep and everything. I think I’m more professional, more focussed on my body than before.
“Every time, when there is a problem, you try to figure out where it is coming from.
“I found out that sometimes it’s me and I need to take good care of myself because it’s my body. My sleep, my diet, everything – I tried to change everything and I think I’m getting better.
“You can see that even though we are playing in the Championship, Newcastle is a big club.
“You can see that they have a vision. Rafa stayed because he had a vision and he believed the team can go up, this is what I also believed as well.
“I wanted to join Newcastle and I believe good things will come.”
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