“She must shift the blame,” Romanian football team’s ex-doctor urges Simona Halep to put all the blame on her coach for ‘unknowingly’ drugging her
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Simona Halep, Patrick Mouratoglou, and Romanian football team's ex-doctor
2-time grand slam champion Simona Halep tested positive for doping yesterday after Roxadustat was found in her blood sample. Soon enough, Halep issued a statement in which she clarified that she didn’t take the substance intentionally and cited her ethics and values as a reason to never cheat.
Halep now risks a suspension of up to 4 years for doping. While Halep has claimed that she hasn’t ingested any illegal substance intentionally, her blood samples show traces of drugs. Romanian football team’s ex-doctor Pompiliu Popescu has spoken on the matter and has rallied that it is the coach’s fault.
Interestingly, when the samples were taken, Patrick Mouratoglou was Halep’s coach but just a couple of weeks ago, he started a new partnership with Holger Rune. Popescu has said that Halep’s best option is to shift all the blame to her coach and trainer stating that it was he who wanted her to enhance her performance by cheating without her even knowing about it.
“This is the option that could go the best, the easiest. To invoke the interference of the coach, the one who wanted to increase his performance by stealing. Then, she can plead not guilty, but on the trainer’s line, shifting the problem to the trainer. She cannot say that there was no such substance in her body,” he said.
Pompiliu Popescu wants Simona Halep to plead ‘not guilty’
He then explained the technicalities and said that Halep’s best chance to escape a ban is to blame the trainer and plead not guilty instead of guilty.
“The substance lasts at least three weeks, as an anabolic, but there is its effect, which is found in a large number of red blood cells. Benefits, just to steal, to earn money at a certain time. That’s why anti-doping in sports was created, to protect the health of performance athletes. In order to come out on top, she must shift the blame to the trainer and plead not guilty. He has nothing more to do,” he said.
Also Read: WATCH: Iga Swiatek trains on “Another one bites the dust” after Simona Halep’s doping suspension
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Lakshya Chopra
(2595 Articles Published)