A sports doctor at the center of drug investigations in Canada and the US said Monday he treated Alex Rodriguez after the Yankees slugger had hip surgery last year and prescribed anti-inflammatories but not human growth hormone (HGH).
Dr Anthony Galea also said an assistant who was stopped at the US-Canadian border in Buffalo, New York, last year was carrying only a minuscule amount of HGH — which Galea said was for his own use. The doctor reiterated that he has never given the drug to an athlete.
“I only brought enough for her to do two injections into me because I was away for two nights,” said Galea, who believes authorities and the media have exaggerated the accusations involving him and his practice.
“They made it look like I had 100 vials,” he said. “I had one little vial and two doses were for me and you think that someone along the line would ask ‘Well how much is there?’”
Rodriguez and other high-profile baseball players including Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran have been contacted by US federal investigators regarding Galea. Reyes and Beltran each say they did not receive HGH from Galea.
Rodriguez said last week he was “aware” of the investigation and plans to cooperate with the government. He declined comment again when asked about Galea after he left New York’s spring training game Monday against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Galea said that he helped with Rodriguez’s rehabilitation from hip surgery last March.
“He had a damaged hip. Inflamed. It was damaged,” Galea said in an interview at his clinic. “He needed anti-inflammatories for his hip. I was basically helping in the rehab.”
The Yankees released a statement last week saying they never authorized Galea to treat the slugger. If Rodriguez was treated without club consent, any attempt to determine whether he violated his record US$275 million, 10-year contract, its guarantee language or baseball’s collective bargaining agreement likely would hinge on whether treatment was elective or necessary.
“The statement we released last week stands,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said, refusing to elaborate.
Baseball commissioner Bud Selig declined comment on Galea’s remarks.
“We have our own department of investigations and we have our own procedures,” he said before the Jackie Robinson Foundation’s annual dinner in New York.
A former doctor for the Canadian Football League’s Toronto Argonauts, Galea is known for using a blood-spinning technique — called platelet-rich plasma therapy — designed to speed recovery from injuries. Among the athletes he has treated are golfer Tiger Woods, swimmer Dara Torres and several NFL players.
He is facing four charges in Canada related to the drug known as Actovegin, which is used as another healing technique.
The drug, extracted from calf’s blood and used for healing, is not approved for sale in Canada, but doctors can prescribe it if they inform patients about what it is. Using, selling or importing Actovegin is illegal in the US; it is not banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
The 51-year-old Galea says that he’s taken HGH — which is banned by the major sports — for a decade because it can improve the quality of life for people over 40.
He became the focus of authorities’ attention last year when his assistant, Mary Anne Catalano, was stopped at the border. US federal court documents say “20 vials and 76 ampoules of unknown, mis-labeled drugs including Nutropin (HGH) and foreign homeopathic drugs” were found in a car Catalano was driving.
But Galea said Catalano could have had only a tiny, half-empty bottle or one ampoule of HGH. An ampoule is a small sealed vial which is used to contain and preserve a sample.
Galea was arrested on Oct. 15 after a search warrant was executed at the Institute of Sports Medicine Health and Wellness Centre in Toronto. He is charged with selling Actovegin, conspiracy to import an unapproved drug, conspiracy to export a drug and smuggling goods into Canada.
US court documents say Catalano waived her right to remain silent when speaking to border officers and admitted that she knew the items she was bringing into the US were illegal and that she was doing it for her employer.
She also told them that Galea acknowledged that he had problems attempting to import the same items into the US on previous occasions, according to the documents.
Catalano is cooperating with investigators and has a court hearing scheduled for Friday. Calvin Berry, her lawyer, said he’s confident they’ll drop the charges against her because of her cooperation.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Matvei Michkov did not score on Monday, but the Philadelphia rookie had a hand in both goals as hosts the Flyers earned a 2-1 victory over the Nashville Predators. Ryan Poehling and Jamie Drysdale got the goals for the Flyers (31-36-9, 71 points), who won their third straight. Michkov and Travis Konecny assisted on both. Ivan Fedotov stopped 28 shots to earn his first win since March 1, ending a personal six-game losing streak. Zachary L’Heureux got the lone goal for Nashville. Michael McCarron and Brady Skjei got the assists for the Predators (27-39-8, 62 points), who have just four goals in their