The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) is considering appealing the AFL Anti-Doping Tribunal’s decision to clear all 34 current and former Essendon players of doping charges.
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ASADA chief executive Ben McDevitt says the anti-doping organisation is carefully considering whether to appeal the verdict, calling what happened at Essendon in 2012 “disgraceful”.
“Hundreds, maybe thousands, of injections, unsupervised and undocumented, were given to Essendon players during the 2012 season,” McDevitt is quoted as saying by the Herald Sun.
“An absolutely deplorable and disgraceful lack of recors of these injections means we still have young men not knowing what was injected into them.”
“They’ve been used as pin-cushions and we don’t know what was injected into them.”
The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) had alleged Bombers players were administered with thymosin beta-4 as part of a supplements program during the 2012 season.
The ruling means the 18 players currently at Essendon are free to play in this weekend’s opening round of the AFL season.
The decision also means former Bombers Paddy Ryder and Angus Monfries, now at Port Adelaide and Western Bulldogs forward Stewart Crameri have been cleared of doping and will also line up for their respective sides.
ASADA and WADA now have 21 days to appeal the decision.
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