Danny Mills (left) was an unforgiving opponent and has now spoken no-holds-barred on drugs in soccer
The former England soccer international and premiership player, Danny Mills has given an in-depth interview about the culture of drug taking in soccer, saying he was given a range of legal medicines and often underwent steroid injections and blood treatments.
Retired since 2009, he has also said that given the ever quickening pace of the game, especially in England, players would do anything to get an edge, up to and including going abroad for illegal treatment.
“Everyone is getting fitter, stronger, trying to prevent injuries, looking for that new idea, that miracle cure to get them back from injury quicker,” he told leading soccer writer Henry Winter in an interview in The Telegraph newspaper.
“If you play Saturday, Wednesday, Sunday and can reduce the effects by legal means or otherwise then there will be players who will be tempted.”
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Mills outlined a sport in which many, though not all, of the substances were legal, but were simply imposed on the players who often had no idea what they were taking.
“Before the lead-up to the 2002 World Cup, we had six months of saliva tests, urine tests, blood tests, so when we turned up, we were given pills of what we were deficient in. I’d come down to breakfast and there’d be a cup of pills with my name on it. I had six in the morning, six at night. I didn’t ask what was in it. You trust what you are given. It was legal. It was magnesium, a bit of ginseng.”
“I wanted to be the best. I looked round and thought everyone else is doing it. It doesn’t make it right but I’m not going to fall behind. Effect on the body later on? Let’s worry about that in 10-15 years. Clubs weren’t worried. If you had a good tournament with England, they could sell you for a bigger fee. I don’t think I’ve ever felt in better shape.”
“The week after the World Cup, I was in Spain on holiday and came down with a massive crash. I’ve never felt so bad in all my life.”
"At Leeds in the Champions League, we had vitamin B12 injections a week before a game and it would give you that perk up.”
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“When I was at Middlesbrough, I had painkilling injections for six months in a really bad toe before games and at half-time just to get through games. I’d wake up at midnight in agony, toe an absolute balloon, throbbing.”
He also alludes to practices that, while illegal in cycling, appear common place in soccer, according his account.
“I played when I shouldn’t have done. I had injections to numb the pain, Cortisone to get me fit for games. It was rife. Cortisone was good but only if injected into pockets of fluid. If injected direct into a tendon or muscle you had to have 10 days of doing nothing. That wasn’t understood in the early days. It was a quick fix. That muscle would start to break down because you were hiding the problem. It was abused.”
“I had four cortisone injections. I took a lot of advice. I took an interest in what I was putting into my body. Lots of players didn’t question it. It wasn’t illegal but it was pushing your body to the limit and past it for the sake of the team. Lads would pop anti-inflammatories religiously. If you have a bad back or bad knee, it’s a fantastic drug but you’re just hiding the issue.”
“Night Nurse was banned for a while. Night Nurse is fantastic. If you’re struggling to get to sleep, Night Nurse knocks you out. I took it. That could possibly have cost me my career.”
“I’ve had PRP [platelet rich plasma] injections. If you have a muscle injury, you take out blood and spin it. It separates white and red cells and the plasma. The plasma has all the antibodies so that is injected into an injury and aids healing time by a third. It was undetectable.”
"I was offered it in the States after having some physio there. A guy came up to me with his business card, saying: This is what we do, PRP injections’. It was illegal at the time.”
“I started to think: ‘This could help me. What harm does it do? It’s not going to enhance my performance. All it will do is help aid my injury’. I was a bit concerned so I went through the official channels, got letters from the FA. But there are guys in Spain, Germany and America where you could book an appointment. Players went off and had it done.”
“Why do players always go abroad for treatment? Is it because they trust that physio or because other treatments are available that doctors in this country won’t do? Players would go to Spain and Germany and get all sorts of different injections like calf serum, animal products.”
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