IOC medical director slams Sheahan defence

THE medical director of the International Olympic Committee has poured cold water on a potential defence by Ireland and Munster hooker Frankie Sheahan that excess levels of the banned drug salbutamol was caused by stress and dehydration.

Referring to the circumstances which led to Sheahan’s two-year ban, Patrick Schamasch was quoted yesterday as saying he doubted whether stress and dehydration could change the concentration of the player’s urine and alter levels of a drug in the system. He claimed that part of Sheahan’s defence was that, as far as the IOC was concerned, athletes with a waiver to use salbutamol as part of asthma relief were not subject to a threshold once it could be proven the drug was not taken in tablet form.

“It is not true to say that the levels are not relevant once inhalation is proven,” Schamasch said. “The levels are always relevant. If you have a case in which an athlete who is permitted to take salbutamol produces a level that’s over the permitted threshold, then it is up to the athlete to prove that such a level may be reached within a normal respiratorial therapeutic framework.”

It is anticipated that Sheahan’s appeal will be lodged by next Friday. The player has spent considerable time with his lawyers preparing his defence and already his legal team are considering their next step in the event of the appeal being unsuccessful.

It is anticipated that if they are unsuccessful, they will take the matter to either the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, or the High Court in Dublin to seek a judicial review.

However, some consolation came for Sheahan yesterday when an unidentified member of the IOC medical commission said it was possible that stress and dehydration could change the concentration of his urine.