{"id":644700,"date":"2026-06-18T04:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T04:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/644700\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T04:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T04:40:09","slug":"5-rugby-stars-who-are-now-almost-unrecognisable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/644700\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Rugby Stars Who Are Now Almost Unrecognisable"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Time catches up with every rugby player eventually, but for some former stars the transformation after retirement has been so dramatic that fans barely recognise them. <\/p>\n<p>From incredible body transformations to hair transplants and complete style changes, here are five rugby icons who look very different today.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/channel\/AbYd2l05pp1bM_Ix\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Join RUCK\u2019s Instagram broadcast channel <\/a>and get the latest rugby news straight to your phone.<\/p>\n<p>5. Phil Vickery (England)<\/p>\n<p>From World Cup-winning prop to gym fanatic<\/p>\n<p>Former England captain and 2003 Rugby World Cup winner Phil Vickery built his reputation as one of the toughest front-row forwards of his generation.<\/p>\n<p>During his playing days, Vickery was known for his stocky frame and immense power at scrum time. Since retirement, however, he has undergone a remarkable physical transformation, embracing fitness and bodybuilding-style training.<\/p>\n<p>Photos of the former prop regularly leave fans stunned, with many struggling to believe it\u2019s the same player who once packed down in England\u2019s front row.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ruck.co.uk\/5-rugby-stars-who-are-now-almost-unrecognisable\/2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CONTINUES ON PAGE TWO<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Time catches up with every rugby player eventually, but for some former stars the transformation after retirement has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-644700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}