Jack Wilshere takes up BOXING after retiring from football last year and names a ‘dream fight’ against a Premier League star.
The 31 year old appeared on social media this week throwing some punches as he reveals his love for boxing.
Since hanging up his boots last year, Wilshere has gone into coaching and has taken up as role as the manager of Arsenal’s under 18s.
Our newest elite club member @JackWilshere smashing the pads 🥊
Hit the link in our bio to hear from the midfield maestro himself 👆⚽️ pic.twitter.com/l41WkvooTX
— The George Groves Boxing Club (@GGBoxingClub) June 30, 2023
However, while he would have been disappointed not to be playing anymore, he now keeps fit, and uses his skills in sessions at The Fit Factory gym in London, which is run by brothers Andreas and Chris Evangelou.
Wilshere said that he has been sparring and has contemplated taking a fight, with a prospective opponent.
Speaking on the The George Groves Boxing Club podcast with a former WBA super-middleweight champion, Wilshere was asked about which footballer past or present he would like to come up against in the ring if he could.
‘I’d like to do it with someone I know. You know Aaron Cresswell? I played with him.
‘I can always remember him sort of floating around the training ground sort of putting his hands up pretending to fight people.
‘I think I’d like to have a go with Cresswell. He’s a similar height to me as well, similar weight.’
He joked that he would show no mercy to the left-back if they faced off against one another, adding: ‘I’ll hammer him. I’d hammer everything to do with him, his mum, everything. His mum’s getting it.’
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So who’s @JackWilshere taking on in the ring then… 🤔🥊
Listen to the full episode by hitting the link in our bio 👆 pic.twitter.com/9vsCsuRcqo
— The George Groves Boxing Club (@GGBoxingClub) July 1, 2023
Wilshere decided to take up boxing may have been helped by Cresswell himself following a prank just as he arrived at West Ham in 2018, as can be seen below…
Wilshere was taking part in an interview on signing for the Hammers inside the London Stadium.
However, is was all a deliberate prank, with Cresswell and Noble giving the interviewer questions to ask Wilshere as they watched on from another room.
After being unknowingly subjected to his initiation at the club, Cresswell and Noble eventually came out to tell Wilshere about how he was being fooled.
“It has been an unbelievable journey filled with so many incredible moments and I feel privileged to have experienced all that I did during my career,” Wilshere said in his retirement announcement on Twitter.
“From being the little boy kicking a ball around in the garden to captaining my beloved Arsenal and playing for my country at a World Cup. I have lived my dream.
“In truth it has been difficult to accept that my career has been slipping away in recent times due to reasons outside of my control whilst feeling that I have still had so much to give.
“Having played at the very highest level I have always held such huge ambitions within the game and if I am truthful, I did not envisage being in this position at times.
“However, having had time to reflect and talk with those closest with me I know that now is the right time and despite the difficult moments, I look back on my career with great pride at what I have achieved.”
Don’t forget though, Wilshere himself loves to be a wind up merchant, here he is scaring Declan Rice…
When Jack Wilshere scared Declan Rice 😅👻
(via jackwilshere/IG) pic.twitter.com/vASWSpH9Qd
— ESPN UK (@ESPNUK) June 26, 2023
Speaking to the Independent back in April, Wilshere said on coaching: “I love it, honestly,” he said of his first year in coaching.
“It’s given me back the real deep love for football and I didn’t know I’d lost it to be honest. I came back here last year and I was coaching a bit, training a bit.
“Then I had a decision to make. Do I want to go to Denmark? I loved it, I loved the country, the people, but I didn’t love it as much.
“When I came back here, and it might be because it’s Arsenal, I feel like people here genuinely care about me, which is nice.
“I love it. On the grass, trying to beat teams, trying to work out a way to play against teams, trying to develop an individual.
“Obviously, it was a different world I was entering. The corporate world, all the emails – but now I’m in a place where I’ve worked that out, I’ve structured my day better. The coaching stuff I absolutely love.”
Fans gave their reaction as Jack Wilshere takes up BOXING and names a ‘dream fight’ against Premier League star Aaron Cresswell…
@ftbllxkaa: Jack’d ave him
@AFCMattxx: @WestHam_Central may the best man win 🤝
@DanielM71795480: Can’t imagine he would be short of opponents .
@kenadams777: Pmsl…. 🚮🚮
@jbomb83: What’s with gum shield?
@curtiswoodhous8: What is wrong with these footballers! Get back to your own sport 😉🥊
@FrazerHennessey: Why’s he got a gum shield in?
@ian_safc_1974: Broken hand now. Out for 9 months
@dustymasonuk: Poppadom ankles , hope his wrists are stronger 😂😂
@Devo72D: Couldn’t stay fit for more than a week or two without someone punching him in the head!!
@RyanMacWH: I’d love to spar him… rude little prick.
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