Reports suggest soccer star Ronaldo's early steroid use led to current knee injuries

A Brazilian physician sounded off, opining that international soccer star Ronaldo's pattern of knee injuries appear consistent with early use of anabolic steroids.  The Brazilian Football Conference (CBF) subsequently threw the doc under the soccer-bus, firing him following the Renaldo remarks.

Dr Bernando Santi suggested that Ronaldo's knee injuries resulted from doping that began when the soccer star came under the tutelage of a European professional team -- PSV Eindhoven.  Story at Goal.com.  (full name = Ronaldo Luis Nazário de Limarecent)

El Fenomeno’s career could be over after he ruptured the tendon in his left knee on Wednesday night. This is the third time that the player has suffered such an injury, and his career has been ravaged by similar physical problems over the past decade.

Ronaldo Was Doped

Bernando Santi says that the reason why Ronaldo has suffered so many injuries is because when he signed for PSV Eindhoven in 1994 as a 17-year-old, he was regularly pumped full of anabolic steroids in order to build up the player physically and help him grow.

As a result Ronaldo then developed muscles that were unable to co-exist with his knee’s bone structure, leading to devastating problems in later years.

"I spoke to colleagues in Holland who know people at PSV,” Santi told the daily Folha de Sao Paulo.  “I did not get to talk to PSV doctors. They gave supplements to Ronaldo, who was very thin, and among those supplements they included some anabolic substances which could make him grow a bit more.”

Santi is in no doubt that it was these drugs that have caused the injuries.  "It is a consequence of having grown beyond what his muscles were prepared to grow," he insisted.
"He gained muscle mass very fast, when he still had not reached maturity. The bill for the use of steroids shows up long term, 10, 15 or 20 years later."

Dr Santi isn't the only physician who believes Ronaldo blew out his knee:

Brazilian legend, Socrates, who is actually a fully qualified doctor in medicine, says that Ronaldo’s problems are as a result of the “abuse” he was subjected to earlier in his career.

"This was a pre-announced injury," the ex-Corinthians and Fiorentina star said.

"There is a difference between Ronaldo's muscle mass and the tendons on his knee. We have all seen Ronaldo grow too fast at the start of his career. That destroyed his knees forever.”

Interesting take on the soccer star's knee injuries.  Almost impossible to prove without a long term epidemiological study, the relationship between over-developed muscles of an athlete due to steroid use, and later-life tendon and ligament injuries remains intriguing.

 

Comments

its ronaldo

its ronaldo

[grg]

Oops, our bad Where was our editor?

thanks