UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) has confirmed that two registered Rugby Football League (RFL) players, Shaun Pick and Ashley Bateman, have each been suspended from all sport for two years following anti-doping rule violations. Mr Pick, 21, tested positive for the presence of metabolites of the anabolic steroid, oxymetholone, following an out-of-competition test on 19 November 2014. The Featherstone Rovers player is banned from all sport from 11 December 2014 to 10 December 2016. The full written decision can be found under current rule violations.

Mr Bateman, 24 tested positive for the presence of an anabolic steroid oxandrolone and its metabolite, epioxandrolone, following an out-of-competition test on 24 November, 2014.  The South Wales Scorpions player is banned from all sport from 18 December 2014 to 17 December 2016. The full written decision can be found under current rule violations.

UK Anti-Doping Director of Legal, Graham Arthur, said: “Players are subject to the anti-doping rules whether they are playing, training or away from the sports field. These two players went against the values and behaviours of clean sport and this failure has resulted in a two year ban for each of them. I hope these cases will act as a deterrent to others and demonstrate that there is no place for athletes who cheat others out of a place in a team and go against the culture of clean and fair sport.”

• This media release originally appeared on the UKAD internet site on 23 February 2015. You can access the original by clicking here.