Two Collingwood players are calling for tests of New Zealand beef after testing positive for a banned muscle enhancer.
Josh Thomas and Lachlan Keeffe have been provisionally suspended by the Magpies after the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) advised that both tested positive to the banned substance clenbuterol.
Both players protest their innocence, with lawyers for the pair suggesting that the two may have inadvertently ingested the substance on a club training trip to New Zealand, News Corp reports.
In a statement, Collingwood said the provisional suspension was not an admission of the players’ guilt, but rather compliance with the World Anti-Doping Authority (WADA) rules regarding positive blood tests.
However, speaking on his Triple M Melbourne breakfast show, Club President Eddie McGuire said that, “if you’re guilty, out you go.”
“If you’re not, we’ll fight for your rights,” McGuire added.
Blood samples were taken on February 10, three days after the Magpies returned from a training camp in Queenstown. News Corp reports that the players ate out at restaurants a number of times, including steak.
Clenbuterol is used in some countries as a muscle enhancer, but the New Zealand beef industry association chairman Bill Falconer dismissed the claims as “fanciful”, and even Collingwood privately doubt the claims.
Related: Fremantle’s Ryan Crowley Tests Positive For Banned Substance
Collingwood have sought assurances from ASADA that no other players have been implicated in any drug use, and this assurance was given.
This comes as the Essendon doping saga, which has gone on for almost two years, comes to a close, with ASADA’s findings to be released today.
