Doping in football

Jens Lehmann: Doping for rehab alright

von Jonathan Sachse

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Lehmann writes about his time at Arsenal London: He and his teammates took infusions “without asking any questions” and with “blind faith in the physicians”. He believes that the physicians didn’t give any illegal substances, but he is not a hundred percent sure about that.

Lehmann speaks out clearly: To be ready to play as soon as possible to him it is “worthy of discussion” that it is forbidden to give an injured player “performance enhancing substances” while he is in rehab training. After all football players have to be – according to Lehmann – in shape really fast, to protect their position on the team and to negotiate new contracts. Lehmann says it is necessary to see “at which instant of time you are taking these illegal substances”. His conclusion: Doping to accelerate the healing process is alright. If doping has an effect on the performance in competitions, it should be still illegal.

Jens Lehmanns column shows again that a lot of football players have a different point of view on doping as it is defined by the World Anti Doping Agency (which has a very clear list of forbidden substances and methods). Bernd Schuster said that it should be alright to take illegal substances to regenerate between games. Franz Beckenbauer talked about his so called “vitamin injections” whose content he couldn’t name.

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