Amateur rugby union player Dean Ashfield has been sanctioned with a four year ban, after a hearing Panel did not accept his argument that an adverse analytical finding (AAF) for three substances was due to an injection from a sports therapist. Ashfield tested positive for drostanolone, 17-epitrenbolone (a metabolite of trenbolone), and clenbuterol, following a 15 March 2017 test after Clevedon RFC’s match against Bridgwater and Albion RFC.

In the National Anti-Doping Panel (NADP) ruling (PDF below), Ashfield argues that he was working as a builder and had been in “agony” due to back and knee pain after reconstructive knee ligament surgery. He said that this had prevented his participation in rugby, and claimed to have received an injection from a sports therapist who also runs a gym frequented by friends.

‘To be absolutely clear, we did not discuss the contents of the injection and I categorically did not have any idea what substances were to be introduced’, claimed Ashfield’s witness statement. ‘I trusted the sports therapist and had no reason whatsoever to believe that the injection was going to be anything untoward; it was proposed as a routine pain relief treatment and I took him at his word, at a point in my life where I was desperate to reduce the pain’.

However, Ashfield was not prepared to give the name of the sports therapist, arguing that he was concerned about a possible threat of violence. The injection was not reported to his doctor, and he failed to identify the date on which is was administered. Also, despite his argument that his pain had prevented him from participating, the Rugby Football Union (RFU) produced evidence that he had participated in every match for Clevedon RFC from the start of 2017 until he was suspended on 10 April. 

In addition, the RFU sought evidence from Professor David Cowan, Director of the Drug Control Centre at Kings College, London. ‘Professor Cowan’s response, had it been properly put forward in evidence, might, if unchallenged, have entirely demolished the “sports therapy injection” thesis’, read the ruling. 

However, a 22 November 2017 NADP order put the body in an ‘impossible position’, to use the RFU’s explanation. It provided that the RFU should serve its witness evidence on 26 January 2018, and Ashfield on 9 February 2018. As the RFU sought Professor Cowan’s witness evidence in response to Ashfield’s 9 February witness statement, Cowan’s evidence had to be discounted. An option to adjourn the case to admit Professor Cowan’s evidence was rejected by all parties.

The Panel ruled that the anti-doping rule violation (ADRV) had been proven and Ashfield had failed to establish that it was not intentional. Ashfield was sanctioned with a four year ban from 10 April 2017, rejecting a submission that his suspension should be backdated to the 15 March sample collection date, as he had played a game after then.