Paul Pogba discusses the impact of fasting during Ramadan on Manchester United preparations

Paul Pogba has explained how he suffers no ill-effects of fasting during Ramadan on his Manchester United preparations.

The France international turned to Islam to become ‘more peaceful inside’.

Ramadan is a Muslim celebration that is running between mid-April and mid-May and requires those following to fast during daylight hours.

With Pogba’s food and water consumption restricted, the World Cup winner was quizzed about how this impacts his preparation playing for Manchester United.

“I would say now I’m just getting used to it,” Pogba told ManUtd.com.

“I’ve been doing it for years. I have a professional nutritionist as well here, who helps me with what I have to eat and also when I train, he gives me some stuff, some protein, so I don’t lose too much muscle and it’s okay.

“I’m lucky. It’s not that hot, you know, so I can deal with it. It’s not that hard, you know. It’s okay and it’s for a good cause so it’s good.”

Speaking about becoming a Muslim in 2019, Pogba told The Times: Pogba said: “It’s everything. That’s what makes me thankful for everything.

“It made me change, realise things in life. I guess, maybe, it makes me more peaceful inside.

“It was a good change in my life because I wasn’t born a Muslim, even if my mum was. I just grew up like that, respect for everyone.

“Islam is not the image that everyone sees – terrorism… What we hear in the media is really something else, it’s something beautiful.

“You get to know it. Anybody can find that he feels connected with Islam. It came because I have a lot of friends who are Muslim. We always talk.

“I was questioning myself in a lot of things, then I started doing my own research. I prayed once with my friends and I felt something different. I felt really good.

“Since that day I just carried on. You have to pray five times a day, that’s one of the pillars of Islam. It’s something that you do.

“The meaning why you do it – you ask forgiveness and be thankful for everything you have, like my health and everything.

It’s really a religion that opened my mind and that makes me, maybe, a better person. You think more about the afterlife.

“This life has a test. Like when I’m with you, here. Even if you’re not a Muslim, you are a normal human. You have a human relationship and respect you for who you are, what religion you are, what colour and everything.

“Islam is just this – respect of the humanity and everything.”