Arsene Wenger believes Petr Cech can play on until he is 40 and emulate former Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar after undergoing a weight-loss programme.
The Dutchman quit professional football in 2011 – although he came out of retirement for one match to help another ex-side VV Noordwijk last year – after six years at Old Trafford.
Cech turns 36 next May and Wenger said: “He gets older, we all do that. But he gets older, I think he is fitter than ever. He puts a lot of attention to the preparation. He is slimmer than before. I think he benefits from that.
“He has lost some weight. Not too much, two, three kilos only. But it’s a lot if you want to make a horse lose a race, you put a jockey with one or two kilos more on the back, and the horse is quite big.
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“He has done it because he feels better and because he wants to be at the best. Petr Cech is a perfectionist. And you don’t make a career he has made if you have not that obsession, always to be at your best.
“I remember Van der Sar, Man United, I compare them. They are intelligent, they have great similar size, similar quality.
"Van der Sar stopped at the end because he decided to stop. Man United wanted him to stay one more year longer. I don’t rule it out, but that will only be down to the performances.”
