Injured footballer Robin Van Persie told surprised media last week that he is travelling to Serbia for treatment that involves massage with horse placenta.
The Arsenal striker hopes the bizarre remedy will speed up his recovery from a ligament tear in his ankle.
Mr Van Persie is reported to have said: “I’m going to give it a try. It can’t do any harm and if it helps, it helps.”
But his is not the only use for this by-product of the breeding industry.
American cosmetics company EMK offers dozens of beauty products containing placenta as a chief ingredients, including eye patches, face cream and cleansers.
And in Japan the soft drink Placenta-Pro contains 30,000mg of 100% undiluted horse-origin placenta, to give you “luxuriantly beautiful skin” and relief from all manner of ailments, including headaches, canker sores, knee pain and sensitivity to cold.
Whether it will do Mr Van Persie any good we shall have to wait and see.
