Most people might assume that dumping a bunch of Skittles into a bottle of vodka and going to town on it isn’t the best way to maintain the level of physical well being needed by a professional athlete. Well, in 2012, when Jamie Vardy first joined Leicester, he was not most people.

In an extract from his new autobiography featured by The Sun, Vardy reveals his shock when he found out that Skittle vodka wasn’t helping his injured leg.

Vardy writes:

I had a dead leg — a fairly routine injury, but it was ­taking an age to get better.

I had a three-litre vodka ­bottle at home I would put loads of Skittles sweets in.

Once one batch had fully dissolved, I’d top it up with more — only the red or purple sweets because I don’t fancy the orange, green and yellow ones. I must have put a different batch in at least 20 times.

After that, you can drink the vodka neat and it tastes just like Skittles. When I was bored at home in the evening I’d pour myself a glass, sit back and enjoy. The vodka was decent but it wasn’t doing much for my dead leg, which didn’t stop bleeding for ages.

Dave Rennie, the physio, said he couldn’t believe it wasn’t improving. He’d seen a torn calf muscle heal quicker.

He pulled me aside one day when nobody else was about. “What are you doing?” Dave asked. “Nothing I wouldn’t ­normally do,” I replied.

Then I explained that what I’d normally do was drink Skittle vodka.

Rennie then explained to Vardy that his Skittle’d alcohol was inhibiting the healing process and presumably asked him if he’d be open to having a responsible adult live with him to prevent him from sticking a fork in an electrical socket in the hopes of giving himself a quick energy boost.

Sadly, Vardy’s publisher did not title his book “Terrible Ideas, and Succeeding in Spite of Them.”