Drinkwater admits the now Al-Nassr star led him to focus more on his work away from the pitch. While not making with United, Drinkwater succeeded with Leicester, before landing a big money move to Chelsea.
"I remember Ronaldo when he first came and he was like, again, he was nowhere near the size he was (now) was he?," he told Rio Ferdinand on the ex-United star's podcast, 'Rio Ferdinand Presents'.
When asked if Ronaldo served as an inspiration, Drinkwater, now 35, responded: "Oh, massively, yeah, and he (Ronaldo) had a tricky start, didn't he?,"
"And I remember he come back (to pre-season) and he looked like, I don't know, he looked like he smashed the gym for a whole year, man. And I remember thinking like, 'wow, like he's at the first team and he's doing that, like we've got ages to go'. And I remember after that then I started taking gym seriously."