Relieved Scott's no dope
Former Hawick lock Scott MacLeod will continue to wear his beloved blue jersey despite mistakenly taking a banned substance to relieve his asthma, writes Fiona Scott.
The popular Borders-bred player, right, was given a warning instead of a ban and has been cleared to continue to play the game after an independent judicial committee found he had taken the drug "inadvertently".
MacLeod recorded a positive result after he was tested by UK Sport, the national anti-doping organisation in the UK, at a national squad training session last month.
The committee found that he had used the drug Terbutaline in his inhaler without the required therapeutic use exemption (TUE), but accepted that the absence of the required TUE was entirely inadvertent since he had a valid TUE for Salbutamol, and that as a chronic sufferer of severe asthma, the use of Terbutaline in substitution for Salbutamol was not intended to enhance performance.
The TUE for Salbutamol given by MacLeod while still playing for the Border Reivers in April 2006 could have included for Terbutaline and the omission of that drug at that time was brought about by a temporary absence of supply by manufacturers. MacLeod had seven days on receipt of the committee's decision to determine whether he would appeal and on Monday confirmed he accepted the decision.
"I was pretty unaware of the different types of asthma medication, but this experience has been a bit of a wake-up call," he said.
"I'm not a cheat and I'm pleased that the panel accepted that I'd used Terbutaline inadvertently and that there had been no intention to enhance sports performance. Hopefully other players will be a bit more savvy given what's happened to me. I want to put this behind me now and concentrate on the job in hand with the national team."
There are no international fixtures this weekend and Border rugby supporters will be turning their attention to the various cup competitions being held around the country.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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