The Osteopath, The Horses Placenta, Viagra And The Faith Healer

The recent injury to Arsenal striker Robin Van Persie, whereby he received treatment involving a horses placenta,  again raised the issue of bizarre treatments that injured footballers have had in order to speed up recovery; including the osteopath who recommended removal of wisdom teeth; and prescribed Viagra to, ahem, lift the fortunes of a Bolivian team!

After damaging his ankle in an international friendly, Van Persie travelled to Serbia where he had the contents of a horses placenta massaged into the injured limb. The treatment failed: he won’t kick a ball until April.

Former England footballer, turned illiterate pundit eye candy, Jamie Redknapp, was once ironically instructed by an osteopath to have his wisdom teeth removed in order to cure… you guessed it (or not) a knee injury?! Redknapp was forced to retire from football, aged 32.

Of course, who could forget Glenn Hoddle’s granny, the faith healer, Eileen Drewery? She was employed by disabled bashing Hoddle to exorcise the demons within the England team leading up to the 1998 World Cup. Most of the players took this incredibly seriously including ex-Arsenal midfielder Ray Parlour who when touched on the shoulders by the faith healing loony asked for a ’short back and sides, please!’

And then there was Bolivian club side, Blooming, whose ingenious physio issued Viagra to players that suffered when playing at high altitude. Viagra, of course, improves the flow of blood around the body and certainly aided Blooming’s striker in particular who poked in two goals the first time he played whilst on the sex drug.

The second goal was a spanker; after thrusting past two defenders he rammed it home, helping his team to hump the opposition and rise up the league table. Sexy football!

Tags: bizarre injuries, osteopath, van Persie

This entry was posted on Monday, November 30th, 2009 at 4:41 pm and is filed under Sport. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.