The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority approved the decision of the Australian Football League to enforce two-year suspension on Lachlan Keeffe and Josh Thomas for use of a prohibited substance.

Keeffe and Thomas have tested positive for Clenbuterol in samples collected out-of-competition last February and have accepted the maximum sanction of two-year suspension. This would mean Keeffe and Thomas are no longer eligible to compete as an athlete or support person in any sport that have adopted a World Anti-Doping Agency complaint anti-doping policy until Feb. 9, 2017. Both players were delisted from Collingwood last week during the list lodgement deadline on Oct. 30.

ASADA noted that AFL has formally advised both players that they would each receive two-year bans after pleading guilty to a breach of the league’s Anti-Doping Code. Both bans were backdated to commence from Feb. 10, 2015 on the basis of timely admissions made by the players.

However, there is a glimpse of hope for both players to return to the AFL, with the Collingwood Magpies ready to retain them in this month’s AFL rookie draft. Keefe and Thomas have declared they would not contest their ASADA charges, but according to The Guardian, the Magpies also intend to re-draft them if they want to try to resurrect their careers.

Under the AFL’s anti-doping code, “a player may return to train with a team or use its club facilities during the shorter of either the last two months of the athlete’s period of ineligibility or the last one quarter of the period of ineligibility.”

Clenbuterol, classed as an S1.2 “other anabolic agent” on WADA’s Prohibited List, is prohibited in and out of competition. Any unsupervised used of it can worsen pre-existing heart conditions or hypertension and could cause a risk of overdose and stroke when used at high doses. It is also not approved on human use in Australia and is banned under the WADA’s Prohibited List.

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