Dr. Anthony Galea, the focus of investigations in Canada and the United States, literally spins the blood of clients in a centrifuge and reinjects it into injured joints to accelerate healing. It sounds groundbreaking but, in fact, is a fairly common treatment that wouldn’t require an athlete to traipse north of the border to find. The feds are interested in other aspects of Galea’s business: He is facing four charges in Canada related to Actovegin, a drug extracted from calf’s blood and used for healing, and his assistant has been charged in the United States for possessing HGH and another drug while crossing the border in September.
The Galea trail has led to many prominent athletes, and authorities are tracking them down one by one, arranging for chit-chats that could rock their worlds in a way they’ve never imagined. The sports agents who recommended Galea and the teams that signed off on him likely have no legal exposure. It’s the athletes who have everything to lose.
Alex Rodriguez(notes) of the New York Yankees, Huston Street(notes) of the Colorado Rockies and Carlos Beltran(notes) and Jose Reyes of the New York Mets either have been interrogated or have meetings scheduled. The feds are reportedly seeking the same with free agent Carlos Delgado(notes). The players have something in common besides being multimillionaire athletes – they are recovering from serious injuries and sought out Galea or his associates for treatment.
If their testimony mirrors their public pronouncements, they have denied wrongdoing to the feds. And based on his recent adamant public statement, Tiger Woods – another client of Galea – won’t be admitting to taking performance-enhancing drugs either.
Their stories range from merely recommending Galea to others (Rodriguez’s explanation), receiving hum-drum treatment for a bone bruise on his knee (Beltran said Tuesday) or innocently acting on the advice of a teammate (Reyes was told by Beltran to visit Galea). The explanations seem plausible, yet we’ve become calloused to every sort of alibi when it comes to athletes and drugs. And some raise questions upon examination. For example, Reyes was treated by a close associate of Galea – chiropractor Mark Lindsay – nearly six years ago, so did he really need Beltran to push him back in that direction?
