Gary Neville breaks down the details of his extreme morning routine

Gary Neville has shared the highly structured morning routine that he relies on each day.

The football pundit and former Manchester United player, 49, told The Times that he wakes up every day at 5.15am, before reading the news and then heading off to the gym for a workout.

“My whole life has been about routine and repetition,” Neville explained. “Even now, I need structure in every part of my life.

“I’m up every morning at quarter past five. I’ll have a coffee, review all the news, sports news mainly, but news as well. All your papers, so I’m across everything.

“Five mornings a week I’ll then walk to the gym for six, and finish at 6.50 before walking back home for seven. Then I’ll spend an hour with the kids when they’re getting ready to go to school. This morning I took them but usually Emma [Neville’s wife] takes them.”

The broadcaster, who also runs the property company Relentless Developments, then arrives at his office in Manchester city centre for eight o’clock.

“And then I’ll go from eight through to about six o’clock,” he added.

Once his working day is over, Neville still tends to follow a pretty strict schedule, ensuring that he spends an hour and a half away from his phone each evening.

“Six until nine, half nine, I’ll have tea and for an hour and a half my phone will go away,” he explained. “And then maybe I’ll watch a game and be in bed for quarter to ten. I’m lucky, I can be asleep within five minutes.”

The ex-footballer said he believes that his work-life balance is “absolutely right”, although he admitted that there may be “times when I maybe need to sort of step off it a little bit”.

Neville is far from the only high-profile star to opt for an early start each day. Back in 2018, the actor Mark Wahlberg’s gruelling daily routine went viral, after the star revealed that he sets his alarm for 2.30am in order to squeeze in prayers, a workout, a game of golf, a few meals and snacks, a recovery session in a cryotherapy chamber, and work meetings, all before midday.

Neville, who appeared as a guest judge on Dragons’ Den last year, made headlines – and raised eyebrows – when it emerged that he refers to holidays as “mini-retirements”.

“It’s where I can basically say, for three days … I don’t think about work,” he told Steven Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO podcast. “Sometimes some of my best ideas come when I’m on these types of trips.

'But in six weeks, I'll have another mini-retirement for five days or four days, rather than thinking you're going to stop for six months and sort of have a sabbatical.”