Gambhir had not sought exemtion certificate

New Delhi: Star batsman Gautam Gambhir has used corticosteroid injections for his recurring shoulder injury but he may not have procured the exemption certificate which is mandatory for usage of such drugs.

Gautam Gambhir has used corticosteroid injections for his recurring shoulder injury but he may not have procured the exemption certificate which is mandatory for usage of such drugs. © AFP

The letter that Kolkata Knight Riders physio Andrew Leipus wrote to BCCI regarding Gautam Gambhir's shoulder injury states that the player had used "corticosteroid injections" earlier.
Interestingly, the corticosteroid injection is under banned drugs list of World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and a sportsperson needs to get Therapeutic Usage Exemption Certificate (TUEC) from National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) or WADA in order to use the drug.
According to Director-General of NADA Rahul Bhatnagar, neither the cricketer nor the BCCI had procured TUEC from the organisation.
"I can confirm that we didn't issue any TUEC clearance to Gautam Gambhir for using corticosteroid injections in the past. We have a three-member committee consisting of one doctor from the AIIMS and two doctors from Safdarjung Hospital who issue TUEC," Bhatnagar told PTI on Thursday.
According to Dr P S M Chandran, the President of Indian Federation of Sports Medicine, TUEC is a must for any sportsperson as there are chances that one may get caught if there is a random dope test.
"Sports doctors are normally cautious in giving steroid injections into joints as they are aware of the dangerous consequences of this injection. These injections give temporary relief, but when the athlete start taking heavy training load subsequently, the area injected fail to cope up with the load," Dr Chandran said.
"The pain resurfaces and it turn out to be a chronic injury. This is probably what must have happened in the case of Gambhir."
Since BCCI had always opposed to the controversial 'whereabouts clause', Gambhir didn't have to go through any out of competition testing.
According to Bhatnagar, the safest thing to do is to procure the TUEC clearance in case of an out of competition test.
"If the sample reports come negative, then one is safe but if one tests positive for banned substance, it's better to have that TUEC so that there is no further trouble."