Bayern Munich club doctor Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfahrt has said performance-enhancing drugs make no sense in football and again hit out at the club’s former coach Pep Guardiola.
Speaking to Die Zeit, he said doping a player would result in a drop in performance in the following match.
Asked whether he had ever encountered performance-enhancing drugs in football, Muller-Wohlfahrt said: “No, not at Bayern or the national team.
“It would make no sense to bulk up in football — the muscles would become too heavy. They’d lose elasticity.
“If a player were to take stimulants, his batteries would be empty after that and he would experience a drop in performance in the following match.
“As far as I can oversee it, there is no doping in football.”
Muller-Wohlfahrt again touched on the clash with Guardiola which led to his departure in the aftermath of a Champions League quarterfinal defeat at Porto in 2015.
“I had been at Bayern for 38 years without any problems,” the 75-year-old said.
“And suddenly a 44-year-old coach joins, someone who has not walked this earth for much longer than I had been Bayern team doc, someone who knows everything, who suddenly puts pressure on and accuses me that an injury layoff after a severe ligament injury takes six to seven weeks rather than four weeks like in Spain.”
Asked whether that meant there were doctors with other treatments in Spain, Muller-Wohlfahrt said: “I don’t have any insight into their work.
“Thiago [Alcantara] once returned from Spain after four weeks, seemingly fit. But when I examined him, I said: ‘Stop! The injury has not healed completely, even though you are pain-free.’
“Guardiola still allowed him to train. Thiago got injured again and went on to miss a full year.”
Stephan Uersfeld is the Germany correspondent for ESPN FC. Follow him on Twitter @uersfeld.
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