Top French cyclists raise questions about Rafael Nadel's use of injections

[SwissVan]

Very good point raised by Guillaume Martin and Thibaut Pinot

Thibaut Pinot and Guillaume Martin speak out against Rafael Nadal's injections | Cyclingnews

French cyclists question ethics of Rafael Nadal's Roland Garros injection use (yahoo.com)

Nadal cruised to the Roland Garros crown as he thrashed Norway's Casper Ruud 6-3 6-3 6-0 to win a historic 22nd grand slam title.

In the aftermath, the Spaniard revealed he was able to get through the tournament by treating his injured foot with injections which shut down certain nerves and, in his words, put the foot "to sleep".

Nadal has endured issues with his foot injury since 2005 when he was first diagnosed with a rare hereditary problem which affected his tarsal scaphoid bone. An insole in his trainer eradicated the issue as the player reached the pinnacle of the sport.

Last year, however, the injury flared up once more as Nadal was forced to miss Wimbledon, the Olympics and the US Open.

The 36-year-old returned to action after injecting his foot with painkilling drugs - something which helped him win this year's Australian Open.

During the French Open though, Nadal changed his injection strategy, saying: "I still had not injected my nerve. After the Moutet match, we concluded that I could not keep injecting myself where I had been because it continued to worsen. We chose to inject the nerve at a distance, which was good. We would never have gotten to this point if we had not done that." Since then, French cyclist Thibaut Pinot took to social media and appeared to offer a satirical view on the matter. Quoting a tweet in which Nadal failed to disclose how many injections he received, the rider wrote: "The heroes of today…".

On Tuesday, another French cyclists, Guillaume Martin, added to the debate in an exclusive interview with L'Equipe.

As quoted by Cycling News, he said: "What Nadal did would have been impossible in cycling, and I find that normal.

"If you're ill or injured, you don't race, you don't compete, that makes sense to me, for several reasons. Firstly, for the health of athletes. In the long-term I'm not sure that will do any good to Nadal's ankle. "Moreover, medication - and especially injections - don't just have a healing effect; they can certainly have effects on performance or be twisted to improve performance, so it seems to me to be very much on the limit."

[mecheng89]

I think cycling's no needles policy makes these injections by their very nature impossible to get past the authorities. 

One has to admire his transparency, not hiding behind PR BS.