The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority has told the NRL it wants to interview 31 current players to assist with its investigation into alleged doping.
ARLC chief executive Dave Smith told a media conference on Wednesday that the NRL integrity unit would issue ASDA notices seeking to interviews the 31 players, while ASADA also planned to interview about 10 former players.
Smith said ASADA had advised that, apart from the well documented issues at Cronulla, there’s no club suspected of systemic doping and it was turning its attention to players, or groups of players, who may have acted outside of their club programs.
The NRL would not reveal which clubs the players to be interviewed came from, he said.
The interview process will start next week and is expected to take four to six weeks and Smith stressed that players interviewed weren’t necessarily suspected of wrong-doing.
He added the NRL would not stand down any player until there was sufficient evidence for an infraction notice.
Smith said if players refused to be interviewed they would face discipline by the NRL.
“If interviews don’t take place there are very clear procedures for us to follow up with individuals within the code of conduct, which is exactly what we will do,” Smith said.
“I don’t expect that to be the case.
“ASADA will tell us the players they want us to contact and through our integrity unit we will issue the notices.
“So far we’ve seen nothing but cooperation from everybody involved in this investigation.”