When Toronto-based Dr. Anthony Galea pleaded guilty last week to smuggling human growth hormone and other unlicensed drugs into the United States, many questioned whether some of these performance-enhancing drugs may have been used by Tiger Woods — a former patient of Galea's.
An assistant to Galea claims this is not true, however, and that the golfer never received any treatment involving PEDs from the Canadian doctor.
"I tell you categorically that Tiger did not receive either banned or performance-enhancing drugs when treating with Dr. Galea," Mary Anne Catalano's lawyer wrote in an email to the New York Daily News.
Catalano, Galea's former assistant, told authorities that she had seen Galea inject "at least seven athletes" with a "cocktail mixture" of drugs, including growth hormone, but insists that Woods was not one of these athletes.
"The suggestion in the media through speculation that [Woods] did [receive PEDs from Galea], while perhaps understandable given the vagueness of the currently available information, is both irresponsible and grossly unfair," her lawyer wrote.
Catalano has reportedly cooperated with authorities in the United States and Canada after pleading guilty last year to giving false information to border patrol agents.
Some have speculated that Woods has used performance enhancers to combat the rash of injuries he has suffered over the past few years, the most recent of which — a lingering leg injury — will keep him out of this weekend's British Open.
A federal indictment against Galea does not name specific athletes that have allegedly received performance-enhancing drugs from the doctor, but prosecutors say the list includes "golfers, professional baseball and football players and others."
