Chief AFL medical officer Dr Peter Harcourt. Photo: Pat Scala
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Chief AFL medical officer Peter Harcourt has revealed suspicions of Essendon’s illegal use of peptides and supplements were so strong that players were tested by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority in 2012, and fears some players could eventually suffer from ”hormonal issues or cancers”.
Harcourt disclosed this during a speech at a FIFA anti-doping sports conference in Zurich in November where, according to lawyers for suspended Essendon coach James Hird on Wednesday, he reinforced their belief that ASADA had acted unlawfully in its joint probe with the AFL last year.
But in the same speech, Harcourt, in detailing what he believes occurred during the injecting program at Essendon in 2011-12, said: ”Coincidentally, we did have some wind of this during the course of the year, it was 2012, and so we did arrange through ASADA to have a number of specimens of these players sent to the Cologne laboratory, rather than the Sydney laboratory, but nothing came out of it. These things were masqueraded as supplements but there was no nutritional content.”