As the father of two girls, my only experience of placenta was in a ‘give me the baby’ experience and that was absolutely fine with me.
However, the advent of a Serbian housewife and her apparent miracle cure for injuries due to horses’s placenta has put a whole new spin on proceedings.
Mariana Kovacevic is having 15 minutes of fame a la Eileen Drewery as she treats the rich and famous and her methods – however controversial – already have very public support from Rafael Benitez.
The Liverpool manager has sent Glen Johnson, Fabio Aurelio, Yossi Benayoun and Albert Riera for treatment. He said: "I had no hesitation. Anyone in their right mind would send a player to her if it meant having him fit again in days, rather than weeks. I don't know exactly how she makes it work, but she does."
Frank Lampard also travelled to Serbia but wasn’t apparently going to receive treatment which, according to Professor Edzard Ernst of Peninsula Medical School at the University of Exeter, is a good move.
"It could cause serious adverse effects, allergic reactions including anaphylactic shock, of which you can die,” he told Sky Sports News. “I don’t know of any data that it would help sports people or any other people. The method was very popular in Germany where a lot of rich people want to rejuvenate their bodies with that method.
"Apart from a beneficial effect on the bank account of the producer, I’m not aware of any other beneficial effect for the patient. Opinions don’t lead us any further in health care. We need data. If a sports person takes this to cure an injury faster it is wishful thinking unless the people (providing it) produce some data. I’m not aware of any evidence that it does anything.”
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is still in a quandary but after Robin Van Persie pleaded to travel to Serbia to try and accentuate the speed of his recovery and the Gunners boss admitted he couldn’t stop his top scorer.
"I'm not a fan of the treatment, but I respect individual freedom to be treated how they want," said Wenger.
"Van Persie said he wanted to go and said it's two days. I asked my medical people if there was any danger. They said ‘No’ and so I let him go. I've never seen anybody with a muscle problem (be fit) short of 21 days. I've never seen anyone go there and five days later he plays."
However, Wenger might want to listen to Lynnea Shrief, from Koala Therapies who is an advocate of the treatment.
"The placenta contains over 128 rich growth factors which help with cell mitosis or cell division within the skin and would promote healing and halve healing time," Shrief told Sky Sports News.
"The placenta also contains many other nutrients and vitamins all needed for health and recovery and I believe it’s an excellent treatment (for Van Persie) to receive."
So the jury is out and the only thing certain is that this debate will rage for a good while longer yet.
However, as long as there is a belief that the placenta treatment is making a difference then there will definitely be a market. It may well be the modern version of the cortisone injection that allow players to play when they probably should still be recuperating but for me, placenta and football just don’t mix…
