Greenock Morton Football Club has become Scotland’s first club to remove meat from players’ diets.
The club went vegetarian to improve physical performance, and as a result, players are feeling ‘great’.
‘A positive step’
Manager David Hopkin told the Greenock Telegraph players were ‘reaping the benefits‘.
He added: “It’s another positive step in the right direction and one that we want to keep going in and hopefully we continue to see the benefits of.
“I’ve not eaten any meat for two years now. I’ve spoken to the players about it and told them that I feel great.
“We’ve got a really good chef and staff at the club who look after us. They’ve really brought into it and the players have too.”
“Last year we tried to introduce it as much as we could and we’d eat fish and as many other things that we could – but this year we thought why not be the first club to go fully vegetarian.”
Players are enjoying it and claim their performances have been ‘enhanced’.
Growth
This year has seen a hike in popularity for abandoning meat amongst the sporting community.
Players have shown their support for leading plant-based companies across the globe, including vegan footballer Chris Smalling who invested in a vegan meat brand.
Arsenal’s Hector Bellerin became the second-largest shareholder of the all-vegan football club, Forest Green Rovers.
Forest Green Rovers Football Club announced that plant-based food ‘is becoming the diet of choice for athletes’.
A game changer
Documentary hit The Game Changers showed how an American Football team, the Miami Dolphins, rose to glory after all its players adopted vegan diets.
Whilst Greenock Morton FC players are yet to take their vegetarian diets home, manager David says he doesn’t mind.
In an interview with the Greenock Telegraph, David added: “I thought it was something that we could all buy into.
“Not everyone is the biggest fan of veg, but you can still make a lot with them and make everything taste really nice.”