Kruis turns to cannabis to ease players’ pain
New alternative therapy is designed to help stop complications caused by current painkillers
George Kruis scrunches his face, his eyes darting towards the ceiling as he contemplates when was the last time he played at 100 per cent of his physical capacity. The pause lengthens. “You will get days where you feel great,” the Saracens and England second row finally ventures. “Sometimes you almost feel young again...” He tails off.
In truth, 100 per cent is a utopia that does not exist for professional rugby players. As Alex Rieder, the Wasps back row, told this newspaper this year: “Show me a rugby player who doesn’t play with pain and I will show you a liar.” It is a paradox that tomorrow’s Gallagher Premiership final, which should be the apex of the English club rugby season, will be contested by two sets of players who are as banged up as anything you would find in a demolition derby. That final push will involve
plenty of exhortations, bandages and painkillers.
There are no statistics on the use of painkillers because they are covered by medical confidentiality, but no one denies that they are commonplace within professional rugby. Even before many players graduate through Premiership academies, they are playing hurt, carrying knocks, managing niggles. And that is before the really big injuries commence. Kruis has had six significant operations and believes he is due another soon by the law of averages. Pain is the name of the game, and hence so are painkillers. “Pain is a massive part of the job,” Kruis says. “It has been like that for ever, or definitely since I came in. Your body has to be in the right place to take the physical contact that you take in rugby. I don’t think anyone would change it. Painkillers take the edge off. If you are in proper pain then that means something is definitely wrong. If it is halfway in between then painkillers can take the edge off and just take your mind away from it.” Co-codamol, a combination of paracetamol and codeine, seems to be the painkiller of choice while Difene is the leading anti-inflammatory. Taking caffeine pills before a match is ingrained in the routine of many players. Some will then take Diazepam, a form of Valium, as a sleeping aid to counteract the caffeine. All are perfectly legal and do not require a Therapeutic Use Exemption.
Yet there are many pitfalls. Codeine is a weak opioid with addictive properties. “I think it would be naive of us to say there isn’t a risk of developing depend well dependency on painkillers or subscription medications,” Richard Bryan, the Rugby Players’ Association’s rugby director, says. Meanwhile, former England captain Lewis Moody believes he developed ulcerative colitis from consuming too many pills and many other players complain of the effects of antiinflammatories on their stomachs.
This is where Kruis and his Saracens team-mate Dom Day believe they can provide a radical alternative. In January 2018, Day was undergoing a knee operation when he heard that cannabidiol (CBD), otherwise known as cannabis oil, had been approved by the World Anti-doping Agency. His curiosity pricked, he tried some and immediately noticed the benefits. When Kruis injured his ankle shortly afterwards, he too became a convert, particularly with how it helped his sleep. Together, they decided to launch their own business, fourfive CBD, selling cannabis oil to athletes and the general public.
Of course, there are still certain connotations that come with cannabis. Kruis admits he had a job explaining his business venture to some of his elderly relatives. Cannabis oil contains only trace amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is the psychoactive element within cannabis.
It also works very differently to conventional painkillers, as Dr Elisabeth Philipps, a neuropharmacologist for Hartwell Nutrition explains.
“It acts within the endocannabinoid system, which is not very well known but almost works as the interface between the immune system and the central nervous system,” Dr Philipps says. “When you take a painkiller it blocks the pain response but it also blocks a number of other responses in the body, hence the gastric stomach injuries. With CBD, it is not blocking anything, it is modulating pain, which is helping the body to adapt. It can also change our perception of pain, so it has this dual-action effect.”
Even though CBD is perfectly legal, many players were reluctant to go near anything that even contains a trace of THC, which can trigger a positive drugs test in high enough dosages. There are also numerous horror stories of players who have received contaminated products off the internet.
This is why Kruis and Day have spent the past year working nearly every spare hour as well as “a lot of money” on getting fourfive CBD approved by Banned Substances Control Group, the gold standard in drugs testing. This week, they have launched what they believe to be the world’s first zero per cent THC cannabis oil to be cross-contaminated tested by BSCG. “We have already had a lot of contact from Olympians to footballers to nutritionists who are all really interested,” Kruis says. They have also been in regular communication with the Rugby Football Union, RPA and Saracens.
As fourfive CBD is marketed as a food supplement, Kruis is prohibited from promoting any medical claims – “we are not here to prevent, treat or cure disease” – but it is clear that he believes he is at the vanguard of a revolution in pain management. “It is a massively exciting industry,” Kruis says. “You can see law changes and more research coming into it. Fingers crossed, it is only going to benefit people in general as it becomes an alternative.”
‘We have already had a lot of contact, from Olympians to footballers to nutritionists’