Webcke tests positive but escapes punishment

[Nicholas]

Retiring rugby league star Shane Webcke has revealed he tested positive for a banned drug but escaped punishment.

Webcke's admission is contained in his new biography Warhorse: Life, Football and Other Battles which is due to be released on Wednesday.

In an extract revealed by the Daily Telegraph, Webcke confirms how he tested positive to the banned substance probenecid after the Brisbane Broncos' opening match of the 2001 season against North Queensland.

Webcke, who is one of the game's most respected figures and a anti-drug campaigner, escaped suspension after it was accepted he had been prescribed the drug to recover from a serious knee infection.

"The news she (representative of the old Australian Sports Drug Agency) conveyed was the most shattering thing I had heard in my years in senior football," the Telegraph reported.

"I could see this blowing up to become a huge public controversy, with me pinned like a rabbit in the headlights ... and with the mud sticking.

Webcke said the matter had been dealt with in-house by ASDA and the NRL with the doctor's failure to register the probenecid prescription as an innocent mistake.

Webcke retired from rugby league a winner after the Broncos beat the Storm 15-8 in the 2006 grand final on Sunday at Telstra Stadium.

[Nicholas]

Four-time NRL premiership-winning forward Shane Webcke believes he could have died had he not taken a banned drug for a serious knee infection in 2001.

A staunch anti-drugs campaigner, Webcke's revelation in his autobiography Warhorse: Life, Football and Other Battles that he tested positive to the drug probenecid and escaped penalty, has shocked the rugby league world.

Apart from probenecid's ability to fight and kill infection, it can also be used to mask the use of steroids.

"I went to hospital with an infection which my doctor told me had it taken hold of the joint in my knee, could have killed me," Webcke, who retired after Brisbane's grand final win last Sunday, told AAP.

"Quite honestly he gave it to me purely on a health basis.

"The fact it was a masking agent was news to me when I was tested for it.

"Once it went through the proper channels I never thought another thing about it."

Webcke included the positive test finding in his book, co-written by Sydney rugby league journalist Ian Heads, because he believed people buying it deserved to get the true story of his life, warts and all.

"Some people may think I've taken a risk but I haven't because I didn't do anything wrong," he said.

The veteran of 20 Tests for his country, 21 Origins for Queensland and 254 games for Brisbane said anyone who called him a "cheat" would be taking a "cheap shot".

"To be honest, if they form an opinion about me that is unfavourable once they've read my account of it in the book, they're not people I want to be involved with," he said.

"At the end of the day I've been very honest about what happened, and I did nothing wrong.

"For someone to suggest I'm a drug cheat because of it is ludicrous and it doesn't trouble me at all."

While he admits in the book he was "terrified" when first told of the positive test by a representative from the Australian Sports Drug Agency (ASDA), he said it was all handled properly in-house between ASDA, the Broncos and the NRL.

"No favours were done for me and policy and procedure was followed to the letter.

"It never weighed heavily on my mind once it was resolved."

Webcke was tested by ASDA officials after the first game of the NRL season against the Cowboys in 2001.

Webcke and Queensland and Australian rugby star Ben Tune were both prescribed probenecid in 2001 by the same orthopaedic surgeon, Peter Myers, to help them overcome infections.

As probenecid was on the International Rugby Board's banned list, Tune was found guilty of a doping offence after returning a positive test.

He was stood down from several interstate and international games but was not suspended.

Probenecid was on the NRL's notification list, but not its banned list.

Webcke erred by not informing the NRL in advance that he was taking the substance to help recover from a knee infection he picked up in England during the World Club Challenge.

NRL chief operating officer Graham Annesley refused to comment on Webcke's revelation.

Brisbane skipper Darren Lockyer said Webcke had never mentioned the positive test to him or his teammates.

"It wasn't common knowledge and nobody knew about it, just him and Wayne (Bennett) by the sounds of it," said Lockyer.

"People know what Shane Webcke is like and what he is about.

"He was totally innocent and unknowing at the time."