Denis Cheryshev Forced To Deny Doping Claims From His Own Dad

Claims of doping and Russian sport seem to go hand in hand but those claims usually come from the media, or an anonymous informant, not from an athlete's own dad as was the case with Denis Cheryshev.

In 2014 Russian athletes were in the main allowed to take part at the Olympics in Rio, Brazil, despite claims of systematic doping in the country's sports.

There has been many other questions and claims about how clean all sporting organisations are within the sport over the last few years, with some even using it as a question to whether the country should host the World Cup.

Of course there has never been any evidence that the football team was part of the systematic doping and so it was never an issue.

However ahead of the shock last 16 win over Spain one player had to face questions about his own personal doping after claims reportedly came from his dad.

Talking at a pre match press conference Denis Cheryshev was asked a question about a quote attributed to his father and said:

"I don't know where the journalist got this from. Maybe they didn't understand my father; maybe they didn't understand what was going on. I have never used any prohibited substances."

PA

The Villarreal player's flesh and blood had been quoted as saying, "He received an injury and, because of the miscommunication of doctors, they began to inject him with growth hormone.

"It was done so that Denis recovered more quickly."

Cheryshev has scored three goals in the World Cup so far. Image: PA Images

The claim from Cheryshev senior, who won 13 caps for his country as a player, was made about his club team rather than anything to do with the national set up.

The Telegraph report that they tried to make contact with the former player about his comments on his son but they had the phone put down on them.

Russian Football Union's officials confirmed that Cheryshev had recently received an injection following an injury but not for growth hormone.

It is often discussed how little footballers actually receive drugs tests compared to athletes in track and field as well as cycling and other sports.

Topics: Football News, World Cup news, World Cup, Spain, Russia

Ryan Sidle

Ryan is a writer for SPORTbible. He covers all sport from football, formula one, cricket, rugby, tennis, athletics, mma and wrestling. He obviously hates YOUR football team and has no interest in synchronised swimming.

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