British Doctor at Centre of Doping Scandal

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Investigation into doping

IT SEEMS the sporting world is never far from a scandalous doping story. Now the British Government is launching an enquiry into the UK Anti-Doping Agency (Ukad) and its investigation into a doctor who is at the centre of a doping scandal involving Premier League footballers and other top athletes.

Mark Bonar, a private London doctor, charges thousands of pounds to top athletes for specific drug programmes.

It has now emerged that The Sunday Times newspaper secretly filmed the doctor advising and prescribing performance-enhancing drugs to several premier league footballers, an English international cricketer, tennis players and top cyclists. Drugs such as EPO, steroids and human growth hormone were allegedly prescribed. The newspaper claims the doctor has been dishing out the drugs to over 150 top sportspeople over the last six years.

Premier League clubs have not been implicated in any way and there is no suggestion of illegal substances. Bonar has told the newspaper he treated the athletes for medical reasons and not to enhance their performance.

Athletes who were contacted by the newspaper have either denied Bonar had treated them or declined to comment. The Government wants to re-examine the claims originally made by a whistleblower sportsperson who was originally banned for breaching the anti-doping laws in 2014.

The sportsperson, who wants to remain anonymous, approached Ukad with evidence implicating Bonar, after being prescribed the banned performance-enhancing drugs.

The original investigations didn’t amount to much when Ukad decided not to progress with investigations as they claimed they were outside their jurisdiction but the allegations could have been passed to the General Medical Council.

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