January 4 – The Football Association is asking anyone with information to come forward after an unnamed England international was reported to have been “kicked out of a nightclub for taking cocaine”.
The allegation was made in the Sun newspaper by an apparent “insider” of the Premier League club involved
The paper alleges the player took the drug during a pre-Christmas team get-together after an away game.
Incidents of doping in English football are “rare”, the FA says, but the governing body insists it “remains a priority for The FA to find and sanction anyone found taking performance-enhancing or recreational drugs”.
An FA spokesman added: “We encourage anyone with information about any anti-doping violation in football to report it to The FA.”
The Sun said the team’s manager put the player in question in a taxi and sent him home — mistakenly believing he had drunk too much.
“Everyone is talking about it. It wasn’t the club’s official Christmas party but a few drinks after a game and many of the players and manager were there,” the paper quoted the insider as claiming.
“One of the players saw him doing a line in the toilets then half an hour later he was all over the place. His jaw was working overtime and he was a mess. He wasn’t just drunk. The gaffer was furious and got him out the back door and into a taxi thinking he had drunk too much.”
His behaviour is said to have shocked other squad members and caused a rift within the team. The insider added: “There’s been turmoil in the dressing room most of the season and this hasn’t helped.”
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