Painkillers in football: "Brufenis are swallowed like candy"

Constant pain, permanent health problems and silence about it: painkillers are the everyday life of many footballers.

Addiction to painkillers is still a big taboo topic.

Neven Subotić has already seen a lot in that special world called professional football.

He was born in 1988 in Yugoslavia and has gone through almost all the stations that a professional football player can go through.

He is considered a sober and calm man, and that is why his words in the media carry weight.

"What I've experienced in the last 14 years: brufens are swallowed like candy."

Painkillers are a daily routine for many Bundesliga footballers and it is not a new phenomenon.

After a year's research and interviews with over 150 former and active players, sports doctors and coaches, journalists from the public service ARD and the research portal Correctiv came to the conclusion that the abuse of painkillers is not a case affecting individuals - it is a mass phenomenon.

Subotić, who is also known to the public for his humanitarian work, talks about professional football as a "pressure transfer system" that ends up on the players.

"Many players take pills even if they don't have acute pain," says the former Borussia Dortmund player.

It doesn't work without a pill

This is confirmed by former professional Dani Sahin.

"For the last three, four years, nothing really worked without painkillers. When you have to play, it's not realistic to go out on the field without pills," he says, talking about prevention.

But pills are not only a problem of top football, but also of the amateur league.

In the ARD and Correctiva survey, 79 percent of amateur soccer players admitted to using painkillers. 56 percent of them regularly.

The president of the German Football Association (DFB), Fritz Keller, expressed his "shock" at these figures and announced measures to "raise awareness" of this problem. "Amateur sports are there to make people healthier, not to destroy them," says Keller.

Among the victims of long-term abuse of painkillers is former professional soccer player and European champion Karlheinz Ferster.

His statements from 2017 show that this problem is anything but a new phenomenon.

"Before, even with minor injuries, it was most normal to take Voltaren in order to be able to play," Ferster told Bild daily.

Without the pill, he says, his career would have ended much sooner.

But even today, he feels the consequences of that abuse.

The cartilage in the ankle joint is completely destroyed.

Pain, which is often forgotten, is actually the body's signal that something is wrong.

"Today, I would recommend every athlete to heal every injury to the end, and not suppress it with painkillers," says the former professional.

Painkillers are not doping

But some in the system look at this phenomenon casually.

Many athletes are praised by management and doctors if they return to the field early after an injury.

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim club doctor Thomas Frelich takes a sober view of taking painkillers.

"Of course, we in top sport say that doping is only what is on the official lists. And there are no painkillers on them," he says.

This position is confirmed by the World Anti-Doping Agency WADA: "Our experts are united in the opinion that painkillers do not increase performance in sports, but only restore it".

Who is wrong?

The results of the journalistic research team are clear and worrying.

But they really can't surprise anyone anymore.

For too long, the structures in football have avoided facing this problem to be "shocked" now. S

The attitude of the DFB is somewhat surprising in this matter.

Niko Kovač said three years ago that those who think that professional football is possible without painkillers are mistaken.

And it was also clear that amateur footballers would sooner or later "pick up" the tricks of the professionals.

The question remains whether the football world will change anything - now that everyone knows about this problem.