IF fitness videos had been the rage in Sir Stanley Matthews' heyday his would have been a best-seller.

Today's experts may frown upon his diet but it kept him playing until he was 73.

Daughter Jean recounted how she would go down the beach to be with him early in the morning to watch him train and also remembers his eating habits.

That included talking all the dough out of bread rolls and only eating the crusts.

She said: "Every day his diet was the same. Carrot juice at lunch-time and steak with salad for dinner.

"Every Monday he would go without any food at all because he said fasting one day a week made him feel so much better.

"The pattern of his life was as regular as it could be.

"To the Turkish Baths on a Monday, which he enjoyed. He loved routine.''

Sir Stan said: "The attraction was to be up at six and to know that I was settled in my rhythm for the day, out there before I went training.

"I would have the place to myself, apart from one or two people walking their dogs.

"I would be back at the beach three afternoons a week after training and walk the six miles from South Shore to St Annes.

"One afternoon a week I would go to Lytham St Anne for a seawater bath and a massage.

"Training on the beach was always on hard sand. I always loved that, it was wonderful exhilaration in the open air.''

Sir Stan was a fitness fanatic who still rose at 6am to complete his dawn exercise regime, into his 80s.

It started in his teens when his father Jack, the boxing barber, had him up at 6am doing exercises and deep breathing by an open window-summer or winter.

Before the beach at Blackpool Sir Stan walked eight miles a day from his home in Seymour Street, Hanley, to the Stoke City ground.

The four trips a day would take him past the Oatcake Shop along Waterloo Street, left at the Rising Sun, right at Hanley Pottery, down Derby Street and Regent Road, through Hanley Park, across Avenue Road into Boughey Road, down past Stoke Station, round St Peter's parish church and along Lonsdale Road to the Victoria Ground.

He recalls: I was able to work on my fitness a great deal during the war.

"I would be out on the beach at six in Blackpool and be on parade at seven, doing an hour's exercises and running.

"My body was used to it and it continued to be my main form of training after war with Stoke and Blackpool teams.''

But as the years clocked up Sir Stan became shrewd with experience and according to George Hardwick, the first post-war England captain, he would pick his games and only play 30 or so each season in later years to preserve his physique.

Hardwick remembers Sir Stan taking pills by the score and said: "He was a near hypochondriac. We would share a room and the bathroom shelf would be crowded with boxes. I would say 'Stan leave me enough room for my toothbrush.'''

But for Sir Stan all the exercise was only any good if you are up by six, he claimed if he rose after 6.30am he would lose all enthusiasm.

First Published: March 3 2000