Blindspots in Jannik Sinner doping case: How did he and his team miss the Clostebol drug problem in Italian sport?

But the chronology also fits into Italian basketball player Riccardo Moraschini’s story.

Three years ago Moraschini’s fiancé used a spray that contained Clostebol after cutting her finger when cooking. Moraschini and his fiancé came in contact and he subsequently tested positive and was banned for a year.

A similar ring to the positive test justification that is becoming as old as the hills in Italy.

Sinner and Moraschini are not isolated cases because Italian sport has a Clostebol problem, from football to tennis to basketball. A scientific research paper titled ‘Detection of Clostebol in sports: Accidental doping? on the WADA website says more Italian athletes are testing positive for Clostebol.

“In the last years, the improvement of the detection capabilities of the antidoping laboratories has led to a moderate increase of Clostebol detection worldwide, and especially in Italy where the use of a cream containing Clostebol acetate and neomycin is quite extended,” the research paper said.

A key finding of the research paper, published in 2020, four years before Sinner tested positive, is that contact with a person who used Clostebol can also produce an adverse analytical finding.

How did Sinner’s team miss the warning?

Sinner’s team seems to have missed the red flags. Found in an over-the-counter medicine used to treat cuts, Clostebol has been banned by WADA because of its muscle-building properties. First developed in East Germany, Clostebol is now only available in medications in only a few countries — Italy, Brazil, Peru and Pakistan, according to the research paper. However, it’s way more popular in Italy, going by the number of positive cases.

At the centre of the Clostebol-Italy link is Trofodermin, a cream and spray. Sinner’s trainer Umberto Ferrara bought this very spray, it was then used by his physiotherapist Giacomo Naldi on a cut. But how did Ferrara and Naldi miss the warning signs, literally on the packaging of the medicine.

Over two decades ago, Italy’s ministry of health mandated that a ‘potentially doping drug’ must have a ‘circular pictogram’ showing a red prohibition symbol with the word ‘doping’ inside it. The leaflet too includes a ‘special warnings’ paragraph, the decree states. Online searches for Trofodermin show images of a red circular pictogram with a prohibition sign running across the word ‘doping’.

Naldi’s absence of caution as a professional physiotherapist is also worrying because he worked in basketball when the Moraschini case made headlines.

Naldi was with rival club Virtus Bologna. Moraschini too had pointed fingers at Trofodermin.

Speaking to L’Équipe in August last year, days after the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) announced that Sinner had been cleared of any wrongdoing, Moraschini said: “It was also a contamination, my fiancée had cut her finger while cooking and had bought Trofodermin, a healing spray that can be obtained without a prescription in Italian pharmacies. It’s the same story as Giacomo Naldi, Sinner’s physiotherapist.”

More Clostebol spray cases

Sinner’s case has dominated the headlines, but Clostebol spray caused a furore when Benevento captain Fabio Lucioni tested positive in 2017 and subsequently banned for a year. In Lucioni’s case, the team doctor said he had used a spray for his personal box to treat Lucioni’s cut. Lucioni had attained legendary status, captaining Benevento’s journey from Serie C to Serie A.

Two years ago doubles specialist Marco Bortolotti tested positive for Clostebol but after providing evidence of involuntary contamination was let go.

In its statement, ITIA had said, “As part of the investigation, the ITIA sought scientific advice from the WADA-accredited laboratory in Montreal, Canada, where the sample was analysed, for expert views on the plausibility of the player’s explanation. The laboratory performed calculations based on Bortolotti’s exposure to the Clostebol and the concentration detected in their sample and confirmed, based on scientific literature, that the player’s explanation was credible.”

Clostebol is similar to meldonium in the way its availability reflects in the nationality of athletes testing positive. Meldonium gained prominence when former World No.1 and six-time Grand Slam winner Maria Sharapova tested positive and was banned for two years. Meldonium prescribed by doctors for angina is known to improve blood flow but WADA found that athletes were using it to their advantage. Produced mainly in Latvia, Meldonium is easily available only in Russia and Baltic countries. Like meldonium in Russia, Clostebol has also earned a bad name in Italy.

Talking to the Associated Press, Giovanni Fontana, an Italian lawyer who represents athletes said, “When an athlete tests positive for Clostebol, the first thing I ask them is if they used Trofodermin,” Fontana said. “And if they haven’t, I tell them to go check if a family member or partner has, because it’s transmitted so easily.”

When WADA banned Sinner for three months, it cleared him of any wrongdoing.”WADA accepts that Mr. Sinner did not intend to cheat, and that his exposure to Clostebol did not provide any performance-enhancing benefit,” the WADA statement said.

Sinner also made the right noises saying, “I have always accepted that I am responsible for my team and realize WADA’s strict rules are an important protection for the sport I love.”

But the unanswered question is why Sinner and his team turned a blind eye to the Clostebol problem in their backyard. Coming from an Italian, a spray, a cut and a positive test sounds like a done to death storyline .