England and Sunderland striker Jermain Defoe has admitted that he has turned vegan in order to prolong his playing career.

The 34-year-old was on the scoresheet for the Three Lions at the weekend as he made his first international appearance in more than three years.

Despite the club's perilous league position, Defoe has also been in fine form for the Black Cats this season, scoring 14 goals in 28 Premier League appearances to date.

"I have a better understanding of my body now," Defoe, who is also tee-total, told talkSPORT. "Everyone wants to feel fresh in the game, there's no better feeling. So I'm just making sure I'm doing the right things - cryotherapy, massage, eating the right things... trying to turn vegan.

"That's a funny one because when I go to my mum's she's got every kind of meat you can imagine out on the table. It was my girlfriend's idea. She said to me, 'You've got to do it' and she's always showing me these documentaries and that. It's always nice to have someone around you to who helps you and drives you on and wants you to do well.

"I don't find anything hard because I know the feeling of scoring goals. So getting in an ice bath and all that isn't nice, but I just think, 'You know what? I'm going to do this and be rewarded'. It's hard, but in another way it's easy because all I want to do is play well and score goals.

"The key thing for me is recovery, giving yourself the best opportunity to perform in the next game, and I seem to have got that to a tee. There's a lot of things I do away from training and away from matchday that help me perform, so I'll just keep doing that."

Defoe is four goals away from equalling his most prolific ever season from 2009-10, when he scored 18 goals for Tottenham Hotspur at the age of 27.