UPDATED: Medical breakthrough – one step too far for footie !
Posted by Martin in Other football news | 29 August 2006
According to an article in The Sunday Times, 5 un-named premiership players have frozen stem cells from their children, just in case they can be used to repair a football injury.
The article goes on to explain that stem cells could be injected directly into the knee and because they have the same genetic code, they start the rebuilding process and could be used to fix cartilage and ligament damage.
Now I understand that football is big business, top players earn mega salaries and therefore want to enjoy a long football career, but I think this is taking it a step too far.
At what lengths will players go to ?
Stem cell research used to be about saving lives, now it appears to be about prolonging footballers careers !
UPDATE: Following on from the article published in The Sunday Times the BBC News Health site refers to a letter to the times from "Medical charities and the parliamentary groups", which explains the treatments that have been licensed in the U.K. At no point does it mention football related injuries. In fact it warns of the potential dangers of stem cell treatments.
So by the time tests have been completed on whether stem cells can in fact repair ligament and cartilage injuries, the 5 un-named players careers will probably have ended !
