No, Man United's Axel Tuanzebe wasn't wearing an Apple Watch during a game

News
By Oliver Haslam
published

Man United Whoop Fitness Tracker
Man United Whoop Fitness Tracker (Image credit: SPORTbible)

What you need to know

  • Manchester United defender Axel Tuanzebe looked like he was wearing an Apple Watch during yesterday's Premier League game with Leicester City.
  • Despite what fans thought on Twitter, it was actually a Whoop Fitness Tracker.

When Manchester United defender Axel Tuanzebe took to the Old Trafford pitch during a Premier League game yesterday, it didn't take people long to notice something was off. Strapped to the player's wrist was what appeared to be an Apple Watch. Twitter, as it is wont to do, lit up.

Except it wasn't an Apple Watch at all. Sure did look like one, though!

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I'm not even sure where something like that would fit within the rules, but it seems the refereeing team was happy for Tuanzebe to play with something wrapped around his wrist, An odd move considering the other limitations placed on players while out on the pitch.

Anyway, SPORTbible points out, this isn't an Apple Watch at all. Instead, it's a Whoop Fitness tracker – used by the likes of NFL players to keep track of their movements during a game.

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And here we were thinking Tuanzebe just wanted to get his step count up! I'm sure he already has a fancy Apple Watch Series 6 at home somewhere, no doubt alongside some very expensive wristwear!

The Manchester United players do have plenty of options in terms of tracking their players' movements and heart rates – including some of the best fitness trackers and heart rate monitors we've ever come across.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.