BRYAN ENGLISH, the Chelsea doctor, is to hold talks with UK Sport, the organisation that administers drug testing in this country, to try to establish whether the technique of blood spinning is a legal way of treating injured players.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) has criticised the practice after it emerged that Chelsea have used it to treat several players. Dick Pound, the chairman of Wada, said last week that the technique might be illegal because it involves manipulation of the blood, but he has asked for guidance from the agency’s scientific department.

Chelsea, who have declined to comment, are among many clubs, not only in football, who use the procedure, which is common in the treatment of tennis elbow. The player’s blood is either injected into an injury to stimulate the healing process, or, in some cases, is removed, cleansed of impurities and then re-injected.

“There is growing evidence that the technique can help the recovery of a player,” Dr Chris Bradshaw, a physician at Pure Sports Medicine, a practice specialising in the treatment of sports injuries, said.

UK Sport has advised players not to undergo the treatment because of fears that it may be banned by Wada and lead to them being given a two-year suspension if found guilty. “This is such a new technique that we feel we have to talk to people about how it works and what the effects are,” a UK Sport spokesman said. “The more we know about this method, the better informed we will be to make a judgment on whether it is illegal or not.”

THE TECHNIQUE EXPLAINED

COMMONLY used in many sports, blood spinning involves three or four millilitres of an athlete’s blood being taken, then cleansed by spinning it through a centrifuge to separate the constituent parts. It is then injected into the affected area. The growth factors present in the blood are believed to be able to help the tissue to repair itself.

The technique has been around for at least five years. Sometimes also known as growth factor treatment, there is some evidence to suggest that it aids recovery from injuries to tendons, such as the Achilles tendon. There is also a suggestion that it works for hamstring injuries.

The technique should not be confused with blood doping, in which red blood cells are segregated, stored and then infused back into an athlete on the eve of an event to boost their oxygen levels.