Hi folks,

I'm trying to stick to my New Year's Resolution of writing a book and I have a character in it who's an athlete with a knee injury. I want him to get drawn into taking banned substances because of his injury, but I don't know which one would make the most sense.

I know EPO/CERA affects your red blood cell count and I know that obviously the more red blood cells you have, the more oxygen you absorb, but would somebody take CERA to give them an advantage coming back from an injury? Is there a banned substance that would make more sense in that situation? I'm thinking it'd probably be a longer course of something like testosterone?

Basically to move the plot forward, I need a substance that would be banned in any athletic event but make sense to be taken because of an injury and not just to outright cheat. If that makes sense. :D

Any help would be greatly appreciated, all you sport science types!

Recovering from an injury, the most obvious would be cortisone injections into the knee, which will kill pain (though not instantly as you sometimes see on films, you have about two days of agony, then lack of pain).

Another possibility might be Butazoladin which is certainly banned in horses because it kills pain so much a horse would jump with a broken leg on Bute.

However, neither of them are really gateway drugs, you'd get them off a sloppy doctor.

Your hero might use testosterone to speed up his training once the knee is stable again. T on its own won't affect knees, but it would make a big different to his ability to to explosive moves in sports. Sprinters are much more likely to use T than marathon runners.

If you read Muscular Development magazine, there is a frequent debate about why is it legal to have operations to improve eyesight for instance in order to improve performance, but not to take supplements of naturally occurring hormones to do the same thing?

Thanks so much for your insight! :)
It gets so confusing because I know nothing about it myself - and it's only a passing thing in the story but I don't want to get it wrong.

Is bute illegal for use in humans? I can't see it on the WADA banned list, but then if it's not technically a drug for people, would it even be on there?

I suppose it could work into the timeline that he was starting on a testosterone course, and knew it was illegal in his career...

Incidentally, he's not the hero, he's the annoying thorn in her side who she has to keep bailing out. ;)


Recovering from an injury, the most obvious would be cortisone injections into the knee, which will kill pain (though not instantly as you sometimes see on films, you have about two days of agony, then lack of pain).

Another possibility might be Butazoladin which is certainly banned in horses because it kills pain so much a horse would jump with a broken leg on Bute.

However, neither of them are really gateway drugs, you'd get them off a sloppy doctor.

Your hero might use testosterone to speed up his training once the knee is stable again. T on its own won't affect knees, but it would make a big different to his ability to to explosive moves in sports. Sprinters are much more likely to use T than marathon runners.

If you read Muscular Development magazine, there is a frequent debate about why is it legal to have operations to improve eyesight for instance in order to improve performance, but not to take supplements of naturally occurring hormones to do the same thing?

I've been prescribed bute by a doctor, but that doesn't mean it's not on something like the Olympic list of banned drugs. There's also a question of dose as well.

For a novel, I suppose you'd have to go with Testosterone, since it's the one everyone has heard of. I still reckon you should buy a copy of MD, just so you can get the other side of the AS debate. Not to mention technical details of what is available, and what is being faked!

Some of the bodybuilding boards would have the same information, but if you just go looking, they'll assume you are a troll and refuse to tell you anything.

I was in a supplement shop in Dublin recently and a guy who was clearly a cop in a tracksuit was trying to get the owner to sell him ephedrine.

Oh, that's another possibility. Not useful as a training aid, but if he had put on weight while injured and wanted to cut to make a weight class?

By the way, how's your book going? I've got one in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, and people are getting used to me running round asking "How big a gun could you carry in a glove compartment?" and "What colour would the vegetation be on a planet with no open water?"

I might just buy a copy of MD - thanks for the heads up. Bute sounds like it would be perfect, but I guess I'd have to explain what it is and that might disrupt the pace of the story, whereas, like you say, everyone's heard of testosterone...

I'll look up Ephedrine - it's on the WADA banned list and seems quite readily available so I'll see whether it'd fit with the plot.

Thanks again for all your advice - it's much appreciated.


I've been prescribed bute by a doctor, but that doesn't mean it's not on something like the Olympic list of banned drugs. There's also a question of dose as well.

For a novel, I suppose you'd have to go with Testosterone, since it's the one everyone has heard of. I still reckon you should buy a copy of MD, just so you can get the other side of the AS debate. Not to mention technical details of what is available, and what is being faked!

Some of the bodybuilding boards would have the same information, but if you just go looking, they'll assume you are a troll and refuse to tell you anything.

I was in a supplement shop in Dublin recently and a guy who was clearly a cop in a tracksuit was trying to get the owner to sell him ephedrine.

Oh, that's another possibility. Not useful as a training aid, but if he had put on weight while injured and wanted to cut to make a weight class?

I thought the big name player is cortisone as a knee injection: Cortisone Steroid Injections - knee, injuries, training, strength, muscle - World of Sports Science (http://www.faqs.org/sports-science/Ce-Do/Cortisone-Steroid-Injections.html)

I thought the big name player is cortisone as a knee injection: Cortisone Steroid Injections - knee, injuries, training, strength, muscle - World of Sports Science (http://www.faqs.org/sports-science/Ce-Do/Cortisone-Steroid-Injections.html)

It is. But it's not a banned substance, or something that would be considered an unfair advantage.

I might just buy a copy of MD - thanks for the heads up. Bute sounds like it would be perfect, but I guess I'd have to explain what it is and that might disrupt the pace of the story, whereas, like you say, everyone's heard of testosterone...

I'll look up Ephedrine - it's on the WADA banned list and seems quite readily available so I'll see whether it'd fit with the plot.

Thanks again for all your advice - it's much appreciated.

It would be no harm to be able to toss in a couple of names of specific drugs, just to make you sound authentic, and then just talk about "cycle" or "AS" or even "T". No-one who uses them ever talks about "roids" or anything like that.

There are a lot of health benefits to testosterone, it's often prescribed to older men with low levels by doctors, so it's possible he could rationalise it to himself without too much spinning.