Yahoo Sport 
How Rochdale's veteran Aaron Wilbraham stays young: 'It used to be jam on toast, now it's poached eggs and avocado'
Aaron Wilbraham casts his mind back to lunch at Stockport when he was a Youth Training Scheme player. It was a world away from today’s health food in the canteen at football clubs today.
Wilbraham, 40, has seen it all in a career spanning over four decades, with no plans on hanging his boots up yet.
It is training and diet that has kept him going from the 1990s to the 2020s, along with a character that has seen him nicknamed Peter Pan among his younger team-mates, some of them at Rochdale were not born when Wilbraham started at Edgeley Park.
“After training most days you’d look in the kitchen and it would be loads and loads of bread and a massive silver tin of beans,” said Wilbraham.
“At Stockport, breakfast wasn’t provided. As a young lad living with your Mum you just grabbed some jam and toast out the door, you’re just trying to stay in bed as long as possible.
“Fast-forward 20 years and now you have poached eggs and avocado, seeded brown toast, all the yogurt and fruits are out. After training you have three or four different dishes and stuff for the vegan lads and pescatarians. Protein shakes, pasta, brown rice. It’s come on so much in that time.”
He played 79 minutes against Bolton at the weekend but two games in four days is not a problem. Now the focus is on recovery rather than the non-stop running of football two decades ago.
“When I started there was no thought about training. You’d get beaten on the Saturday and sometimes they’d get you in running on the Sunday, then they’d get you in Monday and Tuesday running,” Wilbraham said.
“I remember playing a league game for Stockport at 19 or 20 and we got beaten 4-0 by Birmingham in the Championship and as a punishment I was on the bench the next day for the reserves.
“A lad broke his arm in centre-midfield after four minutes so they put me on in that position as a punishment. It used to be old school like that whereas now there is a lot more thought behind the training.”
Wilbraham believes players will now use sports science to lengthen their careers like he has.
At the other end of the scale, they have some of the brightest youngsters in England at Rochdale.
Luke Matheson, 17, set up Wilbraham’s goal that earned a replay at St James’ Park. Kwadwo Baah, 16, also played and Wilbraham believes Rochdale still have the values of old-school apprentices that will take their youngsters to the top.
“Luke and Kwadwo are still out there every day putting the goals out before training,” he said. “The first-year pros do that, they stay grounded even when they work their way into the first team, if you are 18 or 19 you are still getting training ready and doing the extra jobs. “They’ve got that advantage because they are playing so early. They have their extra jobs but probably missed out on cleaning the boots as they’ve jumped that 16-to-20 period by getting straight involved in the first team.”
Wilbraham has also managed to stay young by being a full part of the dressing-room banter. It was Peter Pan who was changing the WhatsApp group name to “Hopper’s Lost A Tooth” when the squad were out in the Algarve in pre-season.
“It makes it sound like it was a drunken brawl but we were just out eating a meal and he was having a bit of pasta and his tooth just came out,” he said. “It’s his first trip away with the lads and he was just a bit embarrassed holding it. Lads were taking pictures and changed the icon on the chat. I think it was just Rochdale FC before that. It’s an easy one to search for.
“Being in the football dressing room keeps you young. You all just feel on a level par. I’ve always been called Peter Pan since I was at Palace, even the lads like MJ and WZ used to call me it because I didn’t act my age, not in an immature way but always involved, a bit of a prankster. I got the tag at 30 and it stuck.”
Wilbraham injured his hand against Bolton but that will not stop him from facing Newcastle.
“The lads will take the confidence from the second half into the game,” he said. “We played really well against Bolton. Newcastle got another couple of injuries - one of my mates Dwight Gayle came off - which is a blow.
“We can go there and people say it’s daunting but it’s more daunting for Newcastle players knowing they have fans expecting to win. That is a harder pressure. We can go there with no pressure and play our game. It’ll be tough but we can go there with confidence.”
