A-Rod admits using steroids

Disgraced New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez has admitted to investigators that he took banned performance-enhancing drugs from the Biogenesis clinic, after publicly denying it, a report said Wednesday.
Rodriguez made the confession in a January meeting with federal agents from the US Drug Enforcement Administration and prosecutors who granted him immunity, the Miami Herald reported, citing a summary of the talks.
The Yankee third baseman, set to return to baseball next year after suspension, said he took steroids and other banned substances provided by Biogenesis, a south Florida anti-aging clinic named by authorities for distributing illegal testosterone and human growth hormone (HGH).
The former director of the clinic, Tony Bosch, last month pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute testosterone. He faces up to 10 years in prison, but could get a lighter sentence for cooperating with a Major League Baseball investigation.
"Rodriguez injected the HGH into his stomach," said the DEA report cited by the newspaper.
"Rodriguez said Bosch told him the HGH would help with sleep, weight, hair growth, eyesight and muscle recovery."
The 39-year-old Yankee slugger said he paid Bosch $12,000 a month for the drugs, the report said.
"I have been clear that I did not use performance-enhancing substances... and in order to prove it, I will take this fight to federal court," Rodriguez had said in January.
Bosch allegedly told Rodriguez he could foil the drug testers by filling his samples with mid-stream urine, instead of using urine from the beginning or the end of his stream.
A total of 13 players, including Rodriguez, were suspended in 2013. Rodriguez initially received an unprecedented 211-game ban while the other 12 were banned for 50 games.
Rodriguez's ban was eventually cut to 162 games -- a suspension that he has finished serving. He missed all of the 2014 season, but is on course to return in 2015.
The testimony from the three-time American League Most Valuable Player is being used in the cases against Bosch and Rodriguez's cousin Yuri Sucart, who acted as a middleman, the Miami Herald said.
In 2009, Rodriguez admitted that he took steroids while playing for the Texas Rangers from 2001 to 2003.
Source: AFP