Missing out: Kyle Walker played on at the end of the season with a pain killing injection after breaking his toe against Bolton

These data encourage efforts to  better understand, and to address, this potential disastrous practice in professional sports.’

The survey showed that some countries were issuing more than three medications per player per game.

‘I think we can use the word abuse — because the dimension is just too much,’ Dr Dvorak told the BBC. ‘Unfortunately, there is the trend to increase the intake of medication. It is something that we have to take seriously and ask what is behind it?’

Dr Hans Geyer, deputy director of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s anti-doping laboratory in Cologne, said: ‘This is an alarming signal.’

Dr Dvorak added: ‘Football has to wake up because the youngsters are mimicking the older ones.

We have NSAID abuse in the under-17 age competitions by something like 16 to 19 per cent of players. This for me is even more alarming.’

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