December 30 – Sevilla midfielder Samir Nasri is being investigated by Spanish Anti-Doping authorities over treatment he received at a Los Angeles clinic.
Nasri will have to explain an intravenous drip treatment he is said to have received amid concerns he may have violated anti-doping rules.
The Spanish Agency for Health Protection in Sport (AEPSAD), which handles the country’s doping issues in sport, said it was launching an investigation. AEPSAD stated on its official Twitter feed: “AEPSAD has initiated the appropriate steps to clarify what treatment was received by the player Samir Nasri.”
The French international, who has 41 caps, is currently on loan from Manchester City to Sevilla and will be free to play on during the course of the probe.
The so-called IV infusion is reported to have involved one litre of hydration and is designed to “combat superbugs and common viruses”. The World Anti-Doping agency has placed a 50ml limit on IV infusions for active athletes in six-hour periods unless it was “received in the course of hospital admissions, surgical procedures or clinical investigations”.
Enrique Gómez Bastida, director of AEPSAD, said that until all the facts are known no sanction can be put in place.
In an interview on the Spanish radio network Cadena SER, he said: “It is necessary to know in what frame and in what situations it [the IV drip] occurred. We will verify the facts to know where we are. You have to be careful with rumours. In the Nasri case there is no sanctioning procedure at the moment, so there could be no interim injunction.”