Rio Ferdinand has revealed that former Manchester United teammate Cristiano Ronaldo used to train with weights on his feet in order to become a better player.

Ferdinand, who played alongside Ronaldo at Man United between 2003 and 2009, also said that the Portuguese, now at Real Madrid, used to practise his shooting on a daily basis away from his teammates.

"You've got Cristiano Ronaldo who came to the club as a good player, as a talented player. You think he was what he is today? He wasn't. He has worked," Ferdinand said during a Q&A session for FA TV.

"He didn't have a great shot when he came. He had a powerful shot but it went everywhere. He used to go out after - he was embarrassed - pick up a bag of balls, walk around to another pitch right over the other side [of the training field] so he could hide behind the trees.

"'Ronnie, where are you going man?' I'm just going over there.' After a few months you'd see. 'Where's Ronnie going? He's doing shooting, he does stepovers.' He used to put these mad things on his feet, these weights, and do mad stepovers. I used to think 'Are you mad? What are you doing?' Until he started bamboozling people."

Ronaldo, 30, scored 118 times in 292 appearances for Man United, before joining Real Madrid, where he has become the club's all-time leading scorer over the course of seven seasons.