Rickie Lambert says former Liverpool teammate Mario Balotelli's training habits were a 'disgrace'.

The pair were teammates at Anfield for the 2014/15 season and competed for the starting striker role under Brendan Rodgers.

Lambert enjoyed his time at the club, but was in disbelief with the antics of Balotelli.

"It was great," he told Bristol Live. "I returned to my home city as a different person than when I left. I was a lot more professional of course. And it went okay at first, I scored a couple and was quite happy.

"But I could tell that the players were all shocked at losing Luis Suarez, and how much of their game evolved around him. I was never going to replace someone like that, was I? Going in after him was hard, very hard.

"And then Brendan Rodgers brought in Mario Balotelli and put him in ahead of me, and it done my head in to be honest. I couldn't understand.

"The way he used to train was a disgrace. Off the training pitch he's quite infectious, a lovely lad. But his persona on the training pitch is not good.

"When he played he did try, and I have come across players with that attitude before, but they are usually good enough to get away with it, but he wasn't.

"I just didn't understand how Rodgers was letting him get away with it, and picking him ahead of me. It affected me directly, but it had a negative impact on the team."