( dpa ) - Bernardo Santi was fired Friday by the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) from his post as the CBF's anti-doping controls coordinator in Sao Paulo, after accusing PSV Eindhoven of having given Ronaldo anabolic steroids that provoked his injuries.
In an interview that the daily Folha de Sao Paulo published Friday, the doctor had said that PSV Eindhoven - who signed Ronaldo in 1994, long before he turned 18 - included anabolic steroids in the striker's physical training programme. Ronaldo then developed muscles incompatible with his knee's bone structure, Santi said.
"The CBF considered inappropriate his comments on a player who is going through such a delicate time," CBF spokesman Rodrigo Paiva told Brazilian sports news website UOL Esporte.
In the interview, Santi had pointed directly at the Dutch club.
"I spoke to colleagues in Holland who know people at PSV. I did not get to talk to PSV doctors. They gave supplements to Ronaldo, who was very short, and among those supplements they included some anabolic substances which could make him grow a bit more," the doctor said.
Santi added that he was convinced that the process was responsible for the injuries that Ronaldo is facing.
"It is a consequence of having grown beyond what his muscles were prepared to grow," the doctor insisted.
He added that in Ronaldo's case the effects of anabolic steroids were particularly harmful because he took them when he was still a teenager.
"He gained muscle mass very fast, when he still had not reached maturity. The bill for the use of steroids shows up long term, 10, 15 or 20 years later," Santi noted.
Former Brazil star Socrates, now a sports medicine expert, said that Ronaldo's problems are a result of the "abuse" he suffered in his career.
"This was a pre-announced injury," the "Doctor" said.
Socrates did not explicitly mention the suspicion that anabolic steroids were used while Ronaldo was at PSV, but he criticized "the marketing exploitation that high-level sportsmen suffer in their careers."
"There is a difference between Ronaldo's muscle mass and the tendons on his knee. We have all seen Ronaldo grow too fast at the start of his career. That destroyed his knees forever," Socrates said.
Ronaldo, 31 and currently at AC Milan, underwent surgery Thursday in Paris to repair a complete tear of the rotula tendon on his left knee, and he is expected to remain off the pitch for at least nine months.
The striker already underwent surgery for a similar injury on his right knee in 2000.