Ronaldo Loves 'Roids

According to Goal.com, "El Fenomeno’s career could be over after he ruptured the tendon in his left knee on Wednesday night. This is the third time that the player has suffered such an injury, and his career has been ravaged by similar physical problems over the past decade. Bernando Santi [a doctor at the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF)] says that the reason why Ronaldo has suffered so many injuries is because when he signed for PSV Eindhoven in 1994 as a 17-year-old, he was regularly pumped full of anabolic steroids in order to build up the player physically and help him grow. As a result Ronaldo then developed muscles that were unable to co-exist with his knee’s bone structure, leading to devastating problems in later years. "

Ronaldo was very thin and rumor has it that PSV doctors gave a teenage Ronaldo supplements, including anabolic steroids, to help him grow and become stronger. Santi claims without a doubt that steroids have caused Ronaldo's body to deteriorate so rapidly. The striker, one of the greatest the world has ever seen has had knee issues for the better part of the last decade. On 21 November 1999, during an Italian Serie A match against Lecce, Ronaldo ruptured his right knee. Less than a year later, he reptured his knee for the second time, during his first comeback.

"He gained muscle mass very fast, when he still had not reached maturity. The bill for the use of steroids shows up long term, 10, 15 or 20 years later" said Santi.

Brazilian soccer legend Socrates, a fully qualified medical practitioner, confirms Santi's report. Socrates argues, "There is a difference between Ronaldo's muscle mass and the tendons on his knee. We have all seen Ronaldo grow too fast at the start of his career. That destroyed his knees forever.”

This report also brings into question Ronaldo's convulsive fit just hours before the World Cup final in 1998 against France, which forced Ronaldo to be rushed to a hospital. Adrian Williams, a professor of clinical neurology at Birmingham University, said, "The idea that someone would be able to carry on a few hours after a seizure is wrong. I'm not saying that it would be dangerous, but there is no way that he would have been able to perform to the best of his ability within 24 hours of his first fit - if it was his first fit." And it may not have been his first seizure. Team doctor's claimed that the seizure was stress related.

One short term consequence of steroid use is high blood pressure, which can cause seizures, along with other complications. If Santi's claims are true, a dark shadow may be cast over Ronaldo's legacy, a three time FIFA World Player of the Year and one of my favorite players of all time.

Santi has since been fired for his speculation of Ronaldo's previous steroid use, claims which cannot yet be verified.