The tennis player’s spokeswoman Jannik Sinner announced that he “suffers from a skin disease called psoriasiform dermatitis in which the skin of the legs and back is affected“, in response to the criticism received after the player was not suspended even though he tested positive for Clostebol during the Indian Wells tournament.
Jannik Sinner
According to Agerpres, the International Tennis Integrity Authority (ITIA) announced on Tuesday that Jannik Sinner was found not guilty of any wrongdoing or negligence by an independent tribunal, after he tested positive for two anti-doping tests in March, on the occasion of the tournament from Indian Wells.
An independent tribunal accepted the Italian player’s explanation that contamination with the banned substance clostebol, an anabolic agent, occurred when a member of his team applied an over-the-counter spray to treat a minor wound earlier this year , ITIA indicated in a statement.
This substance, present in an amount of “less than a billionth of a gram“, as indicated by the tennis player’s team, arrived in Sinner’s body during the treatment he received from his physical therapist, who “bought an over-the-counter product in a pharmacy in Italy to treat a cut on his finger“.
Speaking to German newspaper Bild, Sinner’s spokeswoman, Fabienne Benoit, said that “injured people tend to itch a lot, which causes scratching and consequently small cracks and sores in the corresponding areas“, therefore appearing the cut for which the player’s team used the medicine.
When asked why Sinner’s physical therapist, Giacomo Naldi, did not use gloves or other prophylactic method to avoid contaminating the ointment, the spokeswoman assured that “for the first two days, Naldi wore a bandage,” and “when the cut healed sufficiently and stopped bleeding, he removed the bandage“, after that “started using the spray every day“.
