Get unlimited access to this and all Telegraph Sport's exclusive interviews, insight and analysis for the next 12 months here with our half-price subscription offer - £20.

It is lunchtime at the Leicester City squad’s pre-season hotel, booked so the players can eat and then sleep between the day’s two sessions, although for one member of the squad the idea of a siesta is as alien as letting an opposition defender dawdle on the ball.

Jamie Vardy, the striker who never rests, the non-league footballer turned England international, and the top Englishman among Premier League goalscorers last season, is strolling round the lobby. As lean as ever, he has enjoyed his first full summer off in five years and we are on the lookout for a member of staff with a laptop who can call up his pre-season fitness statistics.

They do not lie: at 32 he has recorded his fastest-ever pre-season performance, beating by 21 per cent his score in 2012 - the summer he joined Leicester. There was a personal best on the cycle ergometer test which measures the heart’s response to varying demands. Monitoring has revealed his lowest heart rate response on record. His body fat is at 7.5 per cent. His GPS unit has registered sprints in training of 9.3 metres per second, close to his high of 9.6. The sports scientist’s notes conclude with the observation that “whilst Jamie might be getting older, the majority of players can only dream of running that quick.”