RIO DE JANEIRO: France’s star winger Franck Ribery yesterday said he refused a cortisone injection that French experts claim could have saved his World Cup place because he believed it was bad for him.
Ribery’s comments deepened a battle between the French camp and Bayern Munich on the eve
of the country’s opening World Cup Group E match against Honduras.
“It’s not good,” Ribery said of the cortisone steroid injection that French team doctor
Franck Le Gall had wanted him to take to ease his crippling back pain.
Le Gall said on Thursday that Ribery had withdrawn from the squad because he was afraid of injections.
The Bayern Munich and German national team doctor Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfahrt retorted the next day that Ribery would be playing at the World Cup if France had used his calf’s blood extract. The product used by the German doctor is banned in France. AFP
