Calf Quotes

(On his late friend and role model, body builder Reg Park): Reg was a dear friend, an extraordinary mentor and a personal hero. Other than my parents, there may be no single person who had more to do with me becoming the person I am today than Reg. He was like a second father to me. It was Reg who impressed upon me how hard I would have to work if I wanted to achieve my dreams. I`ll always remember him making me do calf-raises with 1,000 pounds at 5 o`clock in the morning.

I looked down from my terrace hanging over the Thames one morning. It was low tide and there, stranded on the pebbles, was a four-legged corpse - hairless, white and bloated. Was it a calf or a sheep or a goat or a dog? I stared at it until the tide rose and washed it away. For 24 hours I was off my food. When I started eating again, I couldn`t face meat - fresh or tinned. Overnight I was vegetarian and I have been for 15 years or more. I`ve seen the pictures of factory farming and followed the politics of mad cow disease and felt effortlessly superior. Yet it`s not reason or conscience that keeps me off meat and fowl--and these days fish, too--just a memory of that unidentifiable, decomposing body on the beach.

I got a kick on my calf after four minutes in Sunday`s Premiership game with Newcastle and now the calf is like a dead leg,

You`ll look like you have lead weights strapped to your feet, ... The higher the heel, the more shape you`re going to get to your calf.

It feels like he kicked me in the calf. It doesn`t feel like an Achilles`. I`m sure it`s probably related. A lot of muscles are compensating for the Achilles` right now. I feel fine right now but I wouldn`t think I`ll play next week.

Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fattened calf with hatred