Shaolin Monk Drills Chelsea Stars In Asia Tour
Shaolin Monk trains Chelsea’s Gary Cahill (l)
Chelsea’s players continued their pre-season preparations this week with an unusual training session run by a Shaolin monk.
The Blues are currently in Singapore as part of their tour of Asia, which has included matches against Arsenal and Bayern Munich.
As tough as their 3-2 loss to Bayern was, Chelsea’s session with their Buddhist trainer looked ever harder, especially for defender Gary Cahill.
Buddhism is the most widely followed religion in Singapore, where Chelsea have spent the majority of their summer tour.
Centre back Cahill seemed to struggle with the ‘Horse Stance’ section of the workout, which involved standing on bricks, holding two more in his hands and balancing a bowl of water on his head.
Cahill also grimaced his way through the ‘Iron Arm Strength’ drill as he and lifted three bricks – with great difficulty – using a wooden stick and some cloth.
Team-mates Thibaut Courtois, Willy Caballero and Marcos Alonso took part too.
No 1 goalkeeper Courtois burst into laughter while attempting to nail ‘Shaolin Form’ – a fundamental stance in Kung Fu.
Alonso was arguably the best at imitating his tutor, although it’s safe to say the Spaniard is definitely better at being a left back than he is at Kung Fu.
Chelsea are due to end their Asian tour after playing Inter Milan in Singapore on Saturday.