Soccer Stars' Fave New Cure: Horse Placenta Massage

A treatment featuring horse placenta is becoming all the rage for injured European soccer stars, with two Liverpool players just the latest to seek treatment. The procedure, performed by a Serbian woman, sees the placenta—a leftover of the breeding process—injected into the hurt area, then massaged further into the tissue. Marijana Kovacevic emphasized the “alternative” aspects of the procedure, the Independent notes, using candles and darkened rooms.

Kovacevic is said to charge about $4,500 for the six-hour procedure, about which a number of teams are skeptical. And, the Daily Mirror adds, there have been reports in Serbia that Kovacevic in fact uses human placentas, not horse. Still, Arsenal star Robin van Persie is hot to trot after suffering ruptured ankle ligaments: “The treatment is going well,” he tells Serbian TV. “I hope it will help.”
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