The supposed healing powers of the placenta have long been extolled but never proven, writes EOIN BURKE KENNEDY
ARSENAL SOCCER star Robin Van Persie last week flew to Serbia to have juice from a horse’s placenta massaged into an ankle injury.
The 26-year-old striker had been told he faced at least six weeks on the sidelines after tearing ligaments in his right ankle while playing for the Dutch national side in a recent friendly against Italy.
He said the “placenta cure” had been recommended by a Dutch teammate who had heard of similar injuries being cured in half the time by the treatment.
What’s most unusual about the story is not that the purveyor of this rather strange nostrum is a publicity-shy Belgrade housewife, but that Van Persie is only one of a host of soccer stars enlisting her strange healing techniques.
As news of Van Persie’s pilgrimage east percolated through the media, it emerged five other prominent Premiership footballers, three from Manchester City and two from Liverpool, had also sought the care of physiotherapist Mariana Kovacevic.
Perhaps even more strange is the fact that the players received the full imprimaturs of their managers and medical teams in seeking Kovacevic’s “miracle cure”, even though the clubs have at their command the most qualified sports injury doctors and facilities that conventional medicine can offer.
Kovacevic has so far declined to speak about her strange remedies.
Prior to travelling to Serbia, Van Persie said: “I am going to try. It cannot hurt and, if it helps, it helps.”
Sports injury physician at the Sports Surgery Clinic in Dublin, Dr Conor O’Brien, remains sceptical: “When you look at the hard data, there is nothing in a placenta that would confer any greater healing power than the existing medicines.
“Normal injuries take a definite time to get better. If there was some magic bullet, the pharmaceutical companies would long ago have had it.”
O’Brien warns such methods bring with them a risk of infection as animal organs, like a horse’s placenta, often contain low-lying infections or viruses which can be passed on to the patient.
The supposed healing powers of the placenta have long been extolled by some, but there is no scientific evidence for it.
Earthy types have been known to eat the organ for its rich endowment of minerals, iron and protein, a process known as placentophagy – a popular cure for anaemia in China.
Proponents also believe the mix of hormones may help offset the sharp decrease in hormones after birth.
However, the technique of massaging placenta juices into injured muscles or ligaments is less well known.
Sports stars are no strangers to quack remedies.
Marathon runner Paula Radcliffe once admitted using oil extracted from the belly of an emu on an injury.
Footballer Wayne Rooney sat for long hours in an oxygen tent prior to the 2006 World Cup in an effort to speed up his recovery from a broken foot.
Perhaps the most famous exponent of such wacky treatments is Bayern Munich’s club doctor Dr Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt whose patient list reads like a who’s who of sport. Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard, Linford Christie, José María Olazábal, Kelly Holmes to name a few.
Included in his almanac of strange treatments are injections of a substance called Hylart, which is extracted from the crest of cockerels, and which is used to lubricate knee injuries.