Frank Lampard has become the latest Premier League player to visit the Serbian doctor Marijana Kovacevic as he tries to speed his recovery from the thigh tear suffered while on England duty.
The midfielder had initially been ruled out for around three weeks after sustaining the injury in Qatar but flew to Belgrade, accompanied by the Chelsea club doctor, Bryan English, on Thursday for treatment on the injury in the hope that the 31-year-old might yet be fit for the critical top of the table game with Arsenal at the Emirates on 29 November.
Kovacevic's alternative techniques made waves this week when it was revealed that one of her treatments involved massaging fluid from a horse placenta into the injured area. Robin van Persie has been undergoing that therapy in Serbia after damaging his ankle ligaments during Holland's 0-0 draw with Italy last Saturday, with the secretive Kovacevic having also treated Manchester City's Vincent Kompany and Pablo Zabaleta and the Liverpool trio of Yossi Benayoun, Glen Johnson and Albert Riera. All three of those players trained yesterday ahead of City's visit to Anfield this afternoon.
Lampard, who is due back in London today, has not been undergoing the placenta treatment with Kovacevic – who specialises in muscular injuries – having instead utilised standard massage oils in addressing his thigh complaint. English spoke to the Serbian doctor last week and recognised there would be some merit in the midfielder travelling to Belgrade to be assessed with the treatment to complement that currently being undertaken. Chelsea's Slobodan Rajkovic, the Serb defender who has spent the last two seasons on loan at FC Twente in Holland, has visited Kovacevic in the past.
The Arsenal manager, Arsène Wenger, admitted to being sceptical when it comes to alternative medicine, though he recognised the psychological benefits such a treatment may have on an injured player. The Frenchman, who had not previously been aware of Dr Kovacevic, expects his Dutch striker back in the country tomorrow to continue more conventional treatment at London Colney.
"I asked my medical people if there was any danger to the treatment and, when they said there wasn't, I was happy to let him go," said Wenger. "Van Persie wanted to go. It's sometimes psychological as well, for the players to feel that they can be helped. It can be a problem of confidence. But since I've been in sport a muscle problem takes 21 days [to heal], a damaged ligament is four weeks, and I've never seen it any shorter. You can only play with injections and there's always a recurrence of the muscle injury."
"We heard about her about 15 days ago and the information we got was very positive," added the Liverpool manager, Rafael Benítez. "She is a doctor with a degree in pharmacology and is really good with muscle injuries. If a player is supposed to be out for four weeks and he is back available within two or three days, and everything is clear, they are natural products, then why not? It's curative. It's not trying to improve the performance of the player, it's trying to cure him. We had some players that were injured, and with natural products and treatments they are available, and that's surely a positive."
