Ibuprofens as candy, football, and pain relief medicines

New German media research shows that in German football teams taking pills to calm pain is common. This problem is not even new.

Pain pills are widely used in German football. This is the result of a year of research by doping journalists at ARD and the Corrective inventory network. The investigative journalists' team interviewed more than 150 current Bundesliga players, former professional players, trainers, team doctors, scientists and officials about taking pain relievers.

One of the respondents was Neven Subotic. The defender explains that we do not deal with few individual cases. He said there is a” pressure transfer system”. “Pressure goes from top to bottom, from one to another, and ultimately the biggest pressure remains on the player, who loses most.” According to research, professional footballers often take pills even for profiles, so they have no acute pain.

Even amateur football

Even amateur football players take pain pills. In a poll of no representatives of investigative journalists, 79 per cent of over 1,100 amateur football players surveyed responded positively to the question if they had used pain relievers in their careers. These numbers “selected” and DFB President Fritz Keller. He announced he would be aware of the problem of clubs and trainers. After all, amateur sport “targets to keep people healthy and does not harm them”.

Pressure Against Footballers

Former German national player Karlheinz Förster said it was once common to take Voltar in the case of smaller pains. He says that because of injuries during the game, there are still problems with the ankle. According to him, all aim for the player who gets hurt during the match to be out again in the field. And the team doctors constantly give them soothing drugs instead of letting the body recover.

The team doctor at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, Thomas Frölich, does not consider taking pain relievers as a problem. In a professional sport, of course we say doping is just the substances that are on the list.” And the usual sedatives are not on the doping list. The findings of the investigative journalists are significant and disturbing, but they no longer surprise you. However, the German Football Federation's stance, which tolerates receiving long-time soothing drugs, raises many questions.