Alexis Sanchez has taken to Instagram to show off his shape, ahead of Chile’s match against Ecuador in the early hours of Friday morning.

Chile play their World Cup qualifier at 00:30 on Friday (UK time) and Alexis is working hard to make sure he’s in the perfect condition to play for the national side. He posted a couple of pictures to his Instagram account, showing any doubtful fans how fit he currently is.

Perhaps it was also meant as a message to the former Chile u20 coach José Sulantay, who recently called Alexis “fat” after the side’s loss to Paraguay. It’s hard to agree with Sulantay on the above evidence.

Alexis’ fitness has been improving in the last few weeks, to the extent that he managed to play his first full match in the league at the weekend, against Brighton. Last season, Sanchez managed to feature in every single league game for the Gunners, from start to finish, so he’s already lagging behind in the current campaign.

After a full season and the Confederations Cup, Alexis was always going to need a bit of a break, and after a proper holiday you can’t expect to be back at peak fitness straight away. But it seems like he’s getting there now.