Leazes1986 Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 Former Leeds and England defender Danny Mills says players would do 'almost anything' to get an edge By Henry Winter, Football Correspondent 11:48PM GMT 08 Feb 2013 The former England international, who retired in 2009, says players would do “anything to get an edge” on team-mates, including trips to doctors abroad to get illegal treatment, and he has warned of the dangers of getting sucked into the win-at-all-costs world of English football. “The game now is of such high intensity that you have to be able to compete as a top athlete at the highest level so you’ll do almost anything,” said Mills, who reached a Champions League semi-final with Leeds United and a World Cup quarter-final with England in a 14-year career ending in 2009. “Everyone is getting fitter, stronger, trying to prevent injuries, looking for that new idea, that miracle cure to get them back from injury quicker. If you play Saturday, Wednesday, Sunday and can reduce the effects by legal means or otherwise then there will be players who will be tempted.” Mills’s experience of the influence of medicine in football was most marked with England. “Before the lead-up to the 2002 World Cup, we had six months of saliva tests, urine tests, blood tests, so when we turned up, we were given pills of what we were deficient in. I’d come down to breakfast and there’d be a cup of pills with my name on it. I had six in the morning, six at night. I didn’t ask what was in it. You trust what you are given. It was legal. It was magnesium, a bit of ginseng. “I wanted to be the best. I looked round and thought everyone else is doing it. It doesn’t make it right but I’m not going to fall behind. Effect on the body later on? Let’s worry about that in 10-15 years. Clubs weren’t worried. If you had a good tournament with England, they could sell you for a bigger fee. I don’t think I’ve ever felt in better shape.” Mills believes that an onset of post-tournament lethargy was connected to the discontinuing of these legal treatments as well as the usual emotional dip after such a major event. “The week after the World Cup, I was in Spain on holiday and came down with a massive crash. I’ve never felt so bad in all my life,” he said. “The body was used to getting all this stuff and was now deprived so it shut down. I was fluey, lethargic, feeling low. When I woke up, I couldn’t breathe properly. My body ached all over. It lasted a week. The players should know to wean themselves off it.” Players will do anything to get on the pitch. “This was the era of big bonuses; I could almost double my money by playing and winning. I’ve had hundreds of injections in my career. It’s probably worse now as science gets better, testing for deficiencies. "At Leeds in the Champions League, we had vitamin B12 injections a week before a game and it would give you that perk up. “When I was at Middlesbrough, I had painkilling injections for six months in a really bad toe before games and at half-time just to get through games. I’d wake up at midnight in agony, toe an absolute balloon, throbbing. “I played when I shouldn’t have done. I had injections to numb the pain, Cortisone to get me fit for games. It was rife. Cortisone was good but only if injected into pockets of fluid. If injected direct into a tendon or muscle you had to have 10 days of doing nothing. That wasn’t understood in the early days. It was a quick fix. That muscle would start to break down because you were hiding the problem. It was abused. “I had four cortisone injections. I took a lot of advice. I took an interest in what I was putting into my body. Lots of players didn’t question it. It wasn’t illegal but it was pushing your body to the limit and past it for the sake of the team. Lads would pop anti-inflammatories religiously. If you have a bad back or bad knee, it’s a fantastic drug but you’re just hiding the issue. “Players would do anything to get an edge on team-mates or opponents. People said: ‘Creatine’s bad for you, people are dying’. Taken in wrong amounts yes. But it allows you to build lean muscle quicker. I took it. “Night Nurse was banned for a while. Night Nurse is fantastic. If you’re struggling to get to sleep, Night Nurse knocks you out. I took it. That could possibly have cost me my career. "There was a period when I had five doping tests in a row! It got to the point where I said: ‘If you do me again, I’m not turning up’. “I’ve had PRP [platelet rich plasma] injections. If you have a muscle injury, you take out blood and spin it. It separates white and red cells and the plasma. The plasma has all the antibodies so that is injected into an injury and aids healing time by a third. It was undetectable. "I was offered it in the States after having some physio there. A guy came up to me with his business card, saying: This is what we do, PRP injections’. It was illegal at the time. “I started to think: ‘This could help me. What harm does it do? It’s not going to enhance my performance. All it will do is help aid my injury’. I was a bit concerned so I went through the official channels, got letters from the FA. But there are guys in Spain, Germany and America where you could book an appointment. Players went off and had it done. “Why do players always go abroad for treatment? Is it because they trust that physio or because other treatments are available that doctors in this country won’t do? Players would go to Spain and Germany and get all sorts of different injections like calf serum, animal products.” Mills knows that expediency rules in football. “Every player cheats at some point. Whether appealing for a throw-in that you knows isn’t yours. It’s your livelihood, you’re a natural-born winner and morals go out of the window. "Michael Owen admitted he dived for the Argentina penalty [in 98]. If England win the next World Cup from someone taking a dive is that player not going to get knighted with all the others? Ronaldinho fouled me in the World Cup. I went down. The players came round me and said: ‘The ref’s getting a card out, stay down’. I stayed down. He got sent off. “It’s happened hundreds of times to me the other way. Players exaggerated stuff and I got booked. Alan Shearer was fantastic at it. I’d give him a little nudge in the back, referee doesn’t see it but he had collapsible knees, down he goes, big strong lad, free-kick.” Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shak Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 Was hoping that the players were all taking ecstasy and going out playing, that would have been a laugh. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LRD Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 Love it that the last bit in the article mentions Shearer, and your signature is all about him. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
toon25 Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 Interesting read, but that Danny Mills isn't half a prick. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leazes1986 Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 My lasting memory of him will be when we played Leeds at home about 10 years ago and he kicked Bellamy in the shins and got sent off. Utter cunt of a man. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
STM Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 Funny because Danny Mills is one of the few pundits who I enjoy listening to. Seems a decent guy. Dirty as fuck on the pitch. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raconteur Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 Stuff like this needs to be said. We've had some massive stuff come out in Australia in the past week, this whole-grey-area-legally-but-dubious-morally culture in professional sports. Win at all costs is such an ugly trait. Maybe I'm getting old, but the idea of four cortisone injections or manipulating your own blood for such a meagre gain is really ugly... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beren Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 Was it Mills that Henry used to routinely embarrass? Don't like him, anyway. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Geordiesned Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 Maybe if he'd stopped nudging Shearer in the back he wouldn't have gone down. Squirrels learn faster FFS! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Crooks Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 Danny mills looks like a pill. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ishmael Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 All those pills and Mills was still an average hacker. Wouldn't have bothered mate. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BONTEMPI Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 I'm convinced Suarez is on horse tranquilisers. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jimmyc84 Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 In fairness, magnesium and ginseng is hardly at Lance Armstrong levels. It's the sort stuff you buy at Holland and Barrat. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raconteur Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 In fairness, magnesium and ginseng is hardly at Lance Armstrong levels. It's the sort stuff you buy at Holland and Barrat. True, but he also talks about animal products and going overseas for treatments that weren't legal in the UK... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexthegreat Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 Think the fact that that Spanish doctor Fuentes has been giving evidence in Madrid has led to a few journos sniffing around asking questions about drugs. Wenger has made some comments in the Times today saying that he thinks football needs to do more about doping, although he believes that England is probably clean. Andy Mitten Feb 6, 2013 Save this article A weariness greeted the trial of the Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes in Spain. He is accused of masterminding a doping ring in cycling, charges he denies, but told the court he had clients in other sports including football, tennis and boxing. Related The Anti-Doping Lab Qatar in Doha is still a work in progress. Courtesy ADLQ ■ Qatar lab can be a bastion in war on drug cheats ■ Staying clean in the UAE is athletes' personal responsibility Topic Primera Liga The trial took seven years to come to court after police seized transfusion equipment, anabolic steroids and blood bags at the doctor's Valencia practice. Among his clients were Real Sociedad, whose former president Inaki Badiola admitted at the weekend that his players were doping. He is a credible witness and claimed that the club paid €281,500 (Dh1.3 million) annually to the practice run by Fuentes. He described the purchase of "strange medicines". He claims the doping also went on under his predecessors including Luis Astiazaran, now the president of the governing body of the Primera Liga. Astiazaran issued a denial on Monday. The story comes after allegations of financial mismanagement, which go right to the top in government. Spaniards do not trust governance, in politics or football. In a wide ranging opinion poll, 96 per cent of respondents said they were unhappy with the way football was run. There were complaints about ticket prices which are among the highest in Europe. Then there were concerns about corruption, criminal interference, governance and wages. It is a wonder so many still watch football. And little surprise when allegations of doping are made Read more: http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/sport-comment/doping-revelations-by-eufemiano-fuentes-add-to-spanish-primera-ligas-woes#ixzz2KOYtC42Y I think that the question all this will lead to everyone asking is "Is this Spain / Barca team doped up to the eyeballs?". It's easy to say that with the skills required to play football there isn't enough reward for the risk to be worthwhile, but I expect some people would have said that about baseball a few years ago. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronaldo Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 Was it Mills that Henry used to routinely embarrass? Don't like him, anyway. Happened once. Henry was doing his usual dickheed act. Don't mind Mills. Made the most of his talent and always took responsibility on the pitch. If we'd signed him instead of Carr in 2004 we'd have been far better off. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Espio Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 I'm convinced Suarez is on horse tranquilisers. He's not, he can just never be arsed to cook so he eats a lot of lasagne Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shays Given Tim Flowers Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 Thread title should be changed to Danny Pills tbh. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakie Doke Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 less of the Danny Mills hate. That guy deserved to win MasterChef. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Snrub Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 Danny Mills after a match. http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n266/sushipunk/Gurrrrrrn.gif Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueStar Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 Danny Mills after a match. http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n266/sushipunk/Gurrrrrrn.gif Maddest Cowie face Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LesPaul Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 I'm convinced Suarez is on horse tranquilisers. He's not, he can just never be arsed to cook so he eats a lot of lasagne Horse face is hardly a cannibal like. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pilko Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 Can't stand Danny Mills, particularly when he sits with his gormless smoggie mate Clem and has a go at Newcastle every week on that shit show. Tosser. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Phil K Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 All those pills and Mills was still an average hacker. Wouldn't have bothered mate. It stinks of a third rate player trying to say what the journalist wants him to say Wanting to be seen as "blowing the lid" - hell. Of course that was all going on. Tell us something we don't know, FFS Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest palnese Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 Danny Pills. Herp derp. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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