Using a plaster on top of the nose to try to boost breathing during professional sport has made a comeback. But doctors still say it makes almost no difference despite several sports people swearing by the small adhesive strips. It was all the vogue in the 1990s, with sports stars such as NFL great Jerry Rice, tennis icon Andre Agassi and countless footballers using nose plasters. Scientists and doctors debunked the practice as hocus-pocus. But now tennis champions Carlos Alcaraz and Casper Ruud, skier Sofia Goggia and a host of footballers have brought the nose strips back. They were originally invented to try to help snorers. “It’s for my health. I have a slight cold and can breathe better this way,” Alcaraz recently told reporters. But doctors are unmoved. “Their effect on athletic performance lies in the realm of the placebo effect, as the performance-enhancing impact is minimal to non-measurable,” said sports scientist Lars Donath from the Institute of Training Science and Sports Informatics at the German Sport University Cologne. (DPA)
