I never cease to be amazed at the lengths professional sports people and sporting clubs will go to hasten recovery from injury. Recently the Geelong Football AFL club was prepared to part with some 20,000 Australian dollars for Max Rooke to fly to a German clinic to be treated for a hamstring injury.

During a pre-match interview on ABC Grandstand radio, Rooke was asked about the treatment he received from sports doctors in Germany. His reply was among other things that he received a course of calf-blood derived treatments which by his accounts had been ‘checked’ out by his doctor(s) back here in Australia.

At the risk of being a party-pooper, calf-blood treatments could be regarded as a banned substance/method under the WADA code, which states: “The presence of other substances with a similar chemical structure or similar biological effect(s), diagnostic marker(s) or releasing factors of a hormone listed above (referring to blood doping and growth factors) or any other finding which indicate(s) that the substance detected is of exogenous origin, will be deemed to reflect the use of a Prohibited Substance.”

'At the risk of being a party-pooper, calf-blood treatments could be regarded as a banned substance/method under the WADA code'


While the benefit of the doubt remains whether Rooke's treatment constitutes a breach of the anti-doping code, calf-blood administration has been the source of much speculation and suspicion. One particular calf-blood derived drug, Actovegin has been the source of many drug allegations.

Actovegin is a pharmaceutical product made by a Scandinavian company. Calf blood is treated with substances that break down all the proteins and then exchange the salts and small chemicals with a defined mixture of salts. Originally Actovegin was used in the treatment of circulatory disorders. Studies have shown Actovegin can increase oxygen and glucose delivery to exercising muscles so in theory is a potential performance enhancer!

While it is not implicit in the WADA code if Actovegin is banned, then perhaps it should be. It would appear that it works like EPO with the added benefit of improving glucose metabolism. If it sounds like a duck, quacks like a duck..

Actovegin was among paraphernalia found by reporters in rubbish disposed by Lance Armstrong's cycling team (USPS) during the 2000 Tour de France. Subsequent inquiries found that the drug was used to treat severe skin abrasions and for the treatment of a USPS staff member who had diabetes. It was also the drug claimed by Spanish cyclist Jesus Manzano which caused him to collapse during a hill climb in the 2003 Tour.

Manzano noted that the product he used was came from Germany and was quite expensive, referred to in cycling as the "gas bus", meaning it was used for particularly difficult races or stages. He said: "In the short time trials it was used in the morning, but for difficult stages where there would be a lot of attacks, it was injected the previous day. When preparing for a time trial the 'gas bus' is combined with bicarbonate, lactic acid, and a brand of caffeine that is injected in the buttocks, which by the way, really hurts."

For the sake of Max Rooke, the Geelong football club and the AFL, it needs to be determined whether his calf-blood treatment has inadvertently breached anti-doping rules. It has been argued in the past that such treatment to hasten recovery from injuries is equivalent to using steroids.

It is not known whether Actovegin is a medically approved treatment/drug in Australia.