(NEWS) Tottenham Hotspur admits to use of controversial blood spinning treatments

Tottenham Hotspur’s medical team has been using a controversial blood transfusion treatment to help rush players back to fitness.

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Platelet-Rich Plasma Therapy (PRP) takes blood from an injured area of the body and spins it to separate the cells, platelets and serum. It is then injected back into the damaged area to help compression injuries heal more quickly.

Spurs have used it to hasten Vlad Chiriches’ return to full fitness to face Liverpool on Sunday after the centre-back suffered a swollen knee.

Tiger Woods has said that PRP put his golf career back on track after a series of knee injuries and world No. 1 tennis player Rafael Nadal has also used it, although there have been fears that it moves sport dangerously close to blood doping, whereby a substance such as erythropoietin is used to boost the number of red blood cells in the body and so enhance athletic performance. Blood doping is outlawed by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

The Premier League is likely to put the use of PRP on the agenda when club doctors meet at their annual conference next year.

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Andre Villas-Boas, the Tottenham manager, said of Chiriches’ fitness fight: “There’s a good possibility he will be available for the game against Liverpool but not against Anzhi [in the Europa League tonight [Thursday]. He took a heavy knock to the knee so it’s swollen up quite a lot. We’ve drained some blood from his knee. We’ve used some PRP treatment and it has gone down well.”

Chiriches’ fellow centre-back Jan Vertonghen is also being sent to PRP specialists to treat his ankle injury — but his recovery is unlikely to see him play again until the new year.

“We want and we will avoid surgery and will use PRP treatment to try to get him back as soon as possible,” Villas-Boas said. “We’ve had out standing results with PRP treatment and we will do that again.”