Inside Carrington: Sports Hall

The Carrington sports hall, located on the ground floor in the main building, is the venue for some highly contested games of table tennis and basketball.

"Me and Ronny are probably the best at table tennis,” declares Rio Ferdinand. “Quinton Fortune used to be pretty good when he was here and Ben Foster is a decent player, but Ronny and I have a little battle going now.”

There’s an even bigger battle when it comes to basketball. The NBA wannabes usually consist of Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, Wes Brown, Nemanja Vidic, Darren Fletcher and Tomasz Kuszczak.

“Vida [Nemanja Vidic] is pretty good but Wes has won more games than anyone else,” continues Rio. “He used to play at school and has also got a net in his garden so he practises all the time at home which gives him a slight advantage.”

“At first Wes was miles ahead of everyone,” adds Darren Fletcher. “But like Rio says, that was mainly because he has a net at home to practise with. Now we’re all catching up with him.

"Tomasz is the only one who can execute a proper slam dunk. He shows off a bit about that but he can’t shoot so we give him plenty of stick!”

The sports hall is home to some 30 spinning bikes which the squad use on a daily basis before training. The first 15 minutes of the session are spent on the bikes so as to get the blood pumping through the players’ legs.