Samir Nasri’s spiral down the drain from the top of the footballing world only seems to get worse by the day. While recovering from injury and on loan away from Manchester City at Sevilla, it appears Nasri sought some IV treatment from an Los Angeles-based IV therapy company named Drip Doctors.
Let’s just say that his “hacked” Twitter account and subsequent sexual tweets are the least of his worries. Ironically, it is Twitter that appears to have gotten him in trouble for more than being an idiot. Nasri could be facing up to a four-year doping ban for his appearance at the clinic.
This tweet from the Drip Doctors piqued the curiosity of Spanish anti-doping officials:
https://twitter.com/DripDoctors/status/813850573497741312?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
You see, receiving IV therapy treatment isn’t exactly loved by the World Anti-Doping Agency and the rules of the game in Spain. According to The Daily Mail in the U.K., Nasri is still under investigation because IV treatment for therapeutic use is not allowed under the anti-doping rules in Spain and elsewhere.
Intravenous therapy is banned by WADA unless administered in quantities of no more than 50 millilitres per six-hour period or in cases where an athlete has obtained a certificate of dispensation on medical grounds.
The French midfielder has the backing of Sevilla but they have admitted they were completely unaware he was having the treatment. Nasri would have needed a Therapeutic Use Exemption to be exempt from anti- doping regulations.
It could mean a long ban is coming Nasri’s way, as a violation of the WADA code in question carries up to a four-year ban. Of course, the ban could be lessened based on the nature of the offense and what can be proven.
WADA spokesman, Ben Nichols, points out how that suspension could be handled should the Spanish officials find him guilty:
“However, this will depend upon factors such as whether or not the use was intentional and if unintentional, the sanction could be subject to further reductions on the basis of no significant fault or negligence.”
It is hard to not point out that there is no way Nasri “unintentionally” made a trip to Los Angeles, visited the Drip Doctors, had an IV treatment and had a picture taken with the doctor who administered his “treatment.”
Sure, Nasri could have been experimenting with a treatment to help his recovery process, but he had to know that it would be against the doping rules to do so.
Why would a so-called multi-vitamin treatment be against the doping rules? Often times, these types of treatments can easily be used to flush systems and mask other doping programs out there. Therefore, a ban on such regimens are in place.
We’ll see how long the investigation takes, but it will likely be difficult for Nasri to refute receiving the treatment given the visual and personal evidence from Twitter alone.
