Sports doctors remember that "infiltration is not doping"

The Spanish Society of Sports Medicine has released an informative notebefore “comments taking place prior to public opinion regarding the treatment received by tennis player D. Rafael Nadal during his last participation in the Roland Garros tournament”, stating that “infiltration is not doping”.

At 12 points, the medical entity explained, among other things, that “Anesthetic infiltrations are therapeutic procedures of widespread and ancient useboth in the field of sport, as well as in the workplace and much more ”.

He added that “the indications for infiltrations are well defined in medicine and their main purpose is to reduce localized pain in an anatomical area”.

And he emphasizes that “infiltrations are not prohibited in cycling by the International Cycling Union, as indicated by some athletes of French nationality.”

Explaining that “linking the concepts of infiltration and doping is incorrect and possibly aimed at sowing doubt on the legality of the results of some athletes ”.

The Spanish Society of Sports Medicine concluded in its letter that “infiltration is not a form of doping unless a prohibited substance is given in that injection.”

For his part, the director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), Olivier Niggli, defended Rafa Nadal after criticism appeared in the press and in the world of French cycling, pointing out the infiltrations in which the athlete is allowed to be subjected to his left foot.

Injections with anesthetics on Nadal to fight the pain in his foot “they are not on the list of prohibited products (by the AMA), because they are considered not to improve sports performance and not harmfulNiggli said in an interview for Swiss television RTS.

After his victory at Roland Garros, which combined Mallorcan as the winner of the most Grand Slam titles in the history of men’s tennis, some French cyclists protested Nadal’s therapeutic practice, making sure they were not allowed.

Niggli said the debate on infiltrations should not be brought to the field of doping but to medical ethics, where one might ask “whether it is acceptable that a select athlete should undergo injections before a fight.”

“Nadal has won 14 titles at Roland Garros, and if the previous 13 have been achieved without the need for injections, it’s likely that the fourteenth won’t thank them.“, he concludes.

Nadal, for his part, has assured that in the future he will not undergo injections again, as he will try a new radiofrequency treatment to prevent, at 36 years old, a possible operation that could compromise his sports career. .