Carvalho admits to steroid injections

Daniel Carvalho, the former Brazil international midfielder, has recently admitted that he received regular injections of anabolic steroids while being a part of Russian club CSKA Moscow.

I was given the drugs because CSKA's medical staff considered me "weak," Carvalho said.

From Itv.com:

"In Russian football there isn't any [anti-]doping," he said. "There were needles put into my vein, and on the sixth or seventh injection I stopped taking them because I discovered that it was going straight into my heart.

"I told them I didn't want to take it any more."

The 28-year-old Brazilian, who was Man of the Match in CSKA's UEFA Cup Final win over Sporting Lisbon in 2005, was initially a hit in Russia, and was capped three times by Brazil in 2006.

But a decline in his performances, amid questions over his physical fitness, have provoked criticism - and Carvalho now blames the doping regime he alleges he was subject to in Moscow.

"I left Brazil thin, very thin," Carvalho said. "Then I went to Russia for six years, and they gave me steroid injections, and after six months I'd put on eight kilos."