Tom English: 'Enter Dr Anthony Galea to the Tiger Woods nightmare'

Published on Tuesday 15 December 2009 21:49

YESTERDAY, Cori Rist, one of the Tiger Woods harem, apologised to Elin Nordegren for messing about with her husband.

She said "sorry" on national television in America, said "really sorry" in a spread in a tabloid newspaper and is rumoured to be saying "really, really sorry" in an interview for a magazine in the coming weeks. That's either a whole lot of remorse or a whole lot of dollars. You decide.

Another day and still no sign of the storm abating. Woman number 11 was added to the list in the last 48 hours – a 40-something who had the 'honour' of being both the oldest in his set and also, it seems, the longest-serving – and numbers 12, 13 and 14 are supposedly planning their strategies as we speak.

The talk is that the three, as yet, unknown ladies are all in competition with each other for the title of the 14th major – the combined number of Opens, US Opens, Masters and PGAs Woods has in his locker. If there's an 19th out there – the landmark number that Woods is chasing in order to bypass Jack Nicklaus in his list of major championship victories – I'm guessing that whatever her real name is she's going to rebrand herself as Jackie, the Golden Bear. Followed by an outpouring of teary sorrys on NBC, of course.

If you're done with the scandal – and people are in ever-increasing numbers – then you might have missed something else that surfaced about Woods. Well, something kind of about Woods.

Something that probably would not have been written a few weeks ago when Woods was deemed all-conquering and squeaky clean, but which appeared in the New York Times and then got flashed right across the world in one form or another.

Enter Dr Anthony Galea to the Woods nightmare. Galea is a proven expert in helping sports stars speed up their recovery after surgery. He has successfully performed unique procedures on damaged knees, elbows and Achilles tendons in his native Canada, as well as using blood-spinning, a technique that sees him draw out a small amount of a patient's blood, spinning it to enhance the particles that aid the healing process, and injecting it back into the damaged area.

Some past clients of the Canadian have referred to him as "The Miracle Man". Others know him as "The Healer". When Woods became unhappy with his speed of recovery from a knee operation in the summer of 2008, he turned to Galea for help. And, lo, the blood got spinned and the results were instant. Galea has travelled back and forth to Woods's place about four times since then.

Well, now the New York Times say that Galea is under criminal investigation in America, suspected, they say, of providing certain athletes with performance-enhancing drugs. The FBI are on his case. This after he was arrested in Toronto in mid-October after he was stopped at the US-Canada border and had his medical bag searched by police. Inside were Human Growth Hormone and Actovegin. Using, selling or importing Actovegin is illegal in America.

There was a laptop in the car also and on it were some details of athletes in his care and what kind of treatment he was giving them. Only the authorities know what names are on that list and what products are mentioned. Galea insists that he has no case to answer on any front.

The growth hormone, he argues, is for his own personal use. Prescribing it is legal in Canada. Under the World Anti-Doping Association code it is a banned drug. Galea said he'd been using it for ten years in order to make him feel younger. He has a wife 22 years his junior. He has said lately that he has never used growth hormone on any client of his. He has used Actovegin to treat several athletes, but Actovegin is not a banned drug, though it is viewed with suspicion by WADA and it is one they constantly monitor.

And so to his connection with Woods. Such as it is. Their first treatment took place in the spring and they stayed in touch thereafter. In August, Galea flew to Orlando for his final bout of blood-spinning on the golfer. Woods contacted him again in October, but, by then, Galea was under investigation and the meeting never took place. Galea's supporters say that he is a victim of people who just don't understand his methods, that he has done nothing wrong, that any suggestion from the FBI that he had administered any performance-enhancing drugs on his athletes is plain ignorant. Woods is now caught up in this, he has been linked with a doctor who's under investigation, even though there is absolutely no suggestion that he has taken anything he shouldn't have taken.

He has been roped in because he's vulnerable. If there had been no sex scandal and no weakening of his reputation then you'd have to wonder if Woods would have been so prominent in the New York Times story and in all of the follow-ups? In fact, we know the answer to that already.

Back in October, Bob Weeks writing for ScoreGolf.com wrote about Galea's troubles and his association with Woods. The media world didn't exactly fall over itself pursuing the tale. Tiger was untouchable then. Nobody really had the stomach to check it out.

Had they done so, the reaction of his management company would have been infinitely more robust than the pleading response given the other day by his one-time dismissive minder, Mark Steinberg. "I would really ask that you guys don't write this," Steinberg replied to the New York Times. "If Tiger is not implicated, and won't be, let's please give the kid a break."

Not that long ago, Steinberg would have brought out the heavy artillery and attempted to dynamite a report that put his client's name anywhere near such a story. The full power of IMG would have been wheeled out to nuke the suggestion.

Galea and Woods is a story that everybody will be watching now, just another reminder of how the golfer's world has changed in the last few weeks.

Smith sensible to keep calm over 'chosen one'

WE DON'T often salute Gordon Smith in this column, but the SFA chief executive is due some credit for keeping his cool in the midst of what has become a nationwide media campaign backing Craig Levein's candidacy for the Scotland job.

Levein may well end up being the new Scotland manager when the decision is made in February, but some want him appointed pronto, as if tomorrow is too late.

Smith is telling everyone to calm down, which is good. Perhaps he remembers how Mark McGhee was once considered the shoo-in to succeed Alex McLeish on the back of Motherwell's excellence in the SPL, a run of form that had petered out a little by the time the interviews took place. Quite how he gave it to George Burley instead is another day's work.

Levein is on a roll, but what's the harm in waiting another seven or eight weeks to see if he can sustain it into February. If he can, and United are still up there challenging for second or third, then he'll have proved his mettle. If not, maybe Scotland could do better.

After all, Smith is one of the few men who knows what other CVs are in his in-tray. Take your time, Smudger. And get it right.