Tiger Woods Blood spinning therapy by Dr Tony Galea questioned by Federal Agents
Tiger Woods has confirmed that he met with Federal Agents Thursday and who questioned him about Dr. Anthony Galea. The Canadian doctor is under investigation for distributing performance enhancing drugs to professional athletes.
Woods, who is currently playing at the AT&T National in Philadelphia, acknowledge he received treatment from the sports physician in his Orlando home. Galea is not licensed to practice in the United States, but has provided a legal blood-spinning therapy to the pro golfer in the past.
Blood spinning is a method of therapy used to shorten recovery time when healing injuries. Small samples of the athlete's blood are spun in a centrifuge to increase the concentration of growth hormones. Calcium and the enzyme thrombin are added, forming a gel that is then injected into the wound. The wound can heal as much as five times faster.
The doctor faces charges in the US and Canada. “I co-operated and answered all their questions and that was it,” Woods told reporters after completing the first round at the AT&T Nationals. The golfer was tightlipped about the whole ordeal, but his agent Mark Steinberg confirmed he was not under investigation: “It was confirmed that because he did nothing illegal, he is not the subject of any criminal investigation”
The interview with investigators took a couple hours said Woods, who returned to the tournament and finished the day seven strokes off the pace. He is trailing behind joint leaders Jason Day, Argun Atwal, Nick Watney, and Joe Ofilvie.
The interview seemed to throw Woods off his game, “I putted awful. It was a frustrating day on the greens, especially how good I was driving it . . . My speed was good but I never hit the ball on a line. Even when I hit my putts on the exact line I wanted, they still didn’t go in.” His concentration was no doubt rattled.
Woods’ former swing coach Hank Haney told Golf Digest he was present during four of the five sessions Woods had with Galea. Woods saw the Toronto-based doctor while recovering from his knee surgery in 2008.The Met’s Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran have also been questioned. Alex Rodriguez has also denied being given illegal drugs from Galea, who was the former physician for the Toronto Argonauts.
Galea was targeted for investigation after his assistant, Mary Anne Catalano, was arrested at Pearce Bridge Border crossing with growth hormones, homeopathic drugs, files, and medical equipment in her possession. She originally claimed she was meeting Galea at a medical conference in Washington D.C., but changed her story quickly afterwards to say she was travelling to Washington to meet Galea and treat an athlete. The Washington post identified this athlete as Santana Moss, a wide receiver for the Redskins.
Catalano has since pleaded guilty to giving a false statement to agents. She will appear before a grand jury in a Buffalo federal court room this month, and be sentenced in October. She will likely provide evidence against her boss, who is charged in May with conspiracy to defraud, smuggling, and unlawful distribution of Human growth hormone. Catalano admitted she was trafficking vials of HGH across the border to be injected into athletes. She was instructed to lie to boarder officials if questioned.
As for Galea, Canadian court documents state he treated 23 athletes. Galea visited athletes in eight different U.S. cities between New York and Tampa. The names of these athletes were not identified in the documents, but it has been rumored that most of them are high profile NFL players. Colts quarterback Peyton Manning has been linked to the doctor, as has chiropractor Mark Lindsey.
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