The drug bought by Ferrara, the cut on the finger by the physiotherapist and the dermatitis: the chain of carelessness that could have cost Sinner dearly

A chain of lightness risked costing a disqualification for doping to Jannik Sinner. It all starts on February 12th in the Santissima Trinità pharmacy in Bologna. This is where his athletic trainer Umberto Ferrara buy a pack of Trophoderminused as a healing agent. A month later the world number one’s team is in the USA for the tournament Indian Wells.

The physiotherapist is there James Naldi he injures his finger and Ferrara lends him the medicine – which contains the Clostebola doping substance – to help heal the cut. During the same days, obviously, Naldi massages the South Tyrolean champion several times. And it is here that the contamination which will lead him to test positive for two anti-doping testsone during the Indian Wells tournament and another before the Miami Open.

The story is reconstructed in detail in the judgment – appealable by Wada and Nado Italia – with which Sinner was cleared by theItia: the doping substance entered his body for contaminationhe did not voluntarily take it. For this reason he was not disqualified but – still answerable for the behavior of his team – he will lose the points (400) won in Indian Wells and will have to return the 300 thousand dollars of prize money collected in the tournament.

In 33 pages – in which it also turns out that Sinner had received two temporary suspensions (April 4 and 17) after the failed tests but blocked due to its urgent appeals – the opinions of the experts called by the independent tribunal of Itia, who agreed on the probability that Clostebol was taken through contamination given the very low levels tracked down, it is also superfluous to alternate their performances on the field.

The chain of carelessness (Trofodermin, for example, was in a bag without its packaging on which the presence of Clostebol is indicated) could have cost Sinner dearly. For a similar episode, two years ago, Richard Moraschiniformer Italian basketball player and Tokyo Olympian, received a one-year suspension.

In the sentence of absolution reconstructed every event of those days in detail. From bank transaction presented by Ferrara with which it was possible to ascertain the purchase of the drug in Bologna until the reconstruction of how, Sinner suffering from dermatitiswhich causes micro-lesions on the skin, has become even easier to contaminate oneself during massages.