Former Germany star becomes biggest name footballer to admit he's taking weight-loss jabs - and he's back on it after piling on pounds when he quit

A former Germany star known for his Nutella addiction has admitted to taking weight-loss jabs.

Max Kruse, 37, started taking the fat-removal injections at the start of the year and has found them highly effective. 

The ex-Bundesliga star, who retired from the professional game in 2023, hit headlines during his career for his poker and Nutella proclivities, and he was even banned from enjoying the chocolatey spread in 2016.

While at Wolfsburg, he was called before manager Dieter Hecker and sporting director Klaus Allofs during their winter training camp in Portugal told to lay off the sugar-rich treat at breakfast. 

Since finishing his career at the top level, Kruse has admitted to letting himself go further. Last year, after 'peppering' himself with food, he revealed he had reached a 33 per cent body fat level - three or four times the typical range for a professional player. 

He also had a good time indulging himself on the German version of Celebrity Big Brother, which his wife Dilena had been on the season before.

But Kruse is determined to turn a corner and told the Flatterball podcast, via BILD: 'I stopped the injection six weeks ago and I've already gained seven kilos back! 

'It's called the yo-yo effect. I'm now back to 94 kilograms.

'I've decided to start the injection again now. Stopping it wasn't so good.'

Speaking to the same podcast last year, he opened up on how a trip to the doctor had changed his mind about looking after himself.

'I did an overall check on my fat percentage. My doctor said it was 33 per cnt fat,' he said. 

'I will no longer do my diet like the last six months when I peppered everything left and right. That was certainly a point that helped me gain 15 kilos.'

At his best, Kruse was very talented. You don't earn 14 caps for Germany for nothing, nor sustain a Bundesliga career for over a decade. 

But he would occasionally find himself in the news for antics away from the pitch.

In 2016, in the same week as he received a ticking-off for his Nutella predeliction, he was fined £20,000 by Wolfsburg for accidentally leaving £60,000 of his own poker winnings in the back of a taxi.

German sports newspaper Bild reports that the 27-year-old won money at the World Series Poker tournament in Berlin. He contacted the police to try and get it back, the story went public, and he was reprimanded by his employers.