Essendon says it won’t make any immediate decision on coach James Hird’s future following an allegation he was injected with a substance banned for AFL players.

Hird has declared the allegation “upsetting” and says he can’t wait to clear his name after being accused of injecting a WADA blacklisted drug by Stephen Dank, the sports scientist at the centre of the Australian sports doping inquiry who worked at Essendon last year.

The drug in question – Hexarelin – is banned for players but not for coaches.

The club is already under Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) investigation over supplement use while Dank was at the club, as well as setting up its own review into internal club governance.

Essendon chairman David Evans said on Thursday the Bombers coach deserved “natural justice” over the new claims.

And until those reviews are complete, Evans is backing Hird, with the coach set to remain in charge for the Bombers’ clash with Fremantle in Perth on Friday night.

“The board will not be making a decision about these allegations today,” Evans told a hastily-arranged media conference.

“James Hird is a person of great respect at this club … the board will not be making decisions about the next steps until the processes of the review and the investigation take their course.”

Dank told Fairfax Media that Hird used the substance last year while coaching the Bombers.

Coaches are not required to comply with the same rules as players when it comes to WADA banned substances.

“Obviously they are very upsetting claims,” Hird said before training on Thursday morning.

“I just can’t wait to get in and talk to ASADA and the AFL … I can’t wait to clear my name.”

Dank also told Fairfax that before and during the 2012 season, Essendon players were given the anti-obesity drug AOD9604.

Fairfax Media said information gathered by ASADA corroborated Dank’s claims.

Dank also said he gave players an extract from pig’s brain, which is used to treat Alzheimer’s disease, the first milk from a mother cow and a bark extract.

But Dank said nothing he gave to the players was prohibited and said the supplements were safe.

Hird took training at Windy Hill on Thursday, with the team flying to Perth later in the day.