ENGLAND’S FOOTBALL DOCTOR TO BE QUIZZED ON FARAH
CONCERNS over an infusion given to Sir Mo Farah have led to a parliamentary hearing that will see the current England football team doctor among those called to give evidence next month.
As Sportsmail revealed earlier this month, Farah is under fresh scrutiny after it emerged that UK Athletics medical staff did not properly record an infusion he received for a controversial supplement ahead of the 2014 London Marathon.
In what appeared to be an alarming echo of the Team Sky medical records storm, senior sources confirmed to Sportsmail that medical staff did not follow protocols by ‘centrally logging’ the infusion for L- carnitine given to Farah on the UKA system.
And that has now prompted MPs to call Dr Robin Chakraverty — who administered the infusion as the UKA doctor but is now also the doctor for Gareth Southgate’s senior England side — as part of the culture, media and sport select committee’s ongoing probe into doping in sport.
As a leaked report from the United States Anti-Doping Agency has already revealed, Farah’s American coach, Alberto Salazar, has ‘almost certainly’ broken anti-doping regulations by giving infusions in excess of the permitted limit to six of his athletes at the Nike Oregon Project. The rules state that infusions of more than 50ml in the space of six hours are prohibited. L- carnitine is a legal supplement but in the same leaked USADA documents Salazar tells his friend Lance Armstrong of its ‘incredible’ performingenhancing qualities. ‘It’s amazing,’ declared Salazar.
According to the USADA report Farah was given the infusion in April 2014 by Chakraverty, who continues to work with UKA one day a week.
And while UKA have insisted ‘a comprehensive record’ of the infusion, including details of the amount, has been passed to the anti-doping authorities, USADA have been unable to establish how much was actually taken because of the way it was recorded.
It is believed there are a series of emails but the failure to follow the precise medical protocols is understood to be a source of concern at both USADA and UK Anti-Doping.
The parliamentary committee have also called UKA head of endurance Barry Fudge and Dr John Rogers, who raised concerns about some of Salazar’s practices — and the fact that Salazar’s ‘off-label and unconventional’ uses of certain prescription medications was endangering Farah’s health — after attending a training camp in 2011. Rogers sent an email to UKA detailing the issues and passed that email to USADA investigators. Both Farah and Salazar have consistently denied any wrongdoing.
UKA chairman Ed Warner has also been called to give evidence to the parliamentary committee, as has under-pressure UK Sport chief executive Liz Nicholl, who can also expect questions from MPs on the current crisis in British cycling.