Warren Gatland has admitted he had suspicions about a Wales player doping during his 12-year reign as national head coach.
Gatland, who left the post after the Rugby World Cup, admitted he had suspicions about a Wales player based on jokes made by teammates, but later clarified he had no evidence to base any suspicion on.
The identity of the player the Kiwi was referring to is unknown.
Gatland made the revelation while speaking to Off The Ball presenter Joe Molloy on Wednesday night, while discussing doping in the sport.
Gatland said: "You know I haven’t come across, personally, any players that I've coached from a Wales perspective that I would - well sorry, maybe one."
Asked if he had a suspicion, the former Wales boss said: "Yeah, maybe one, now that I think about it."
When asked if the person played for Wales, Gatland responded: “He may have done, yeah.”
Gatland clarified the comments were only a suspicion or a doubt, and he had no evidence.
"And that's the whole time I've been coaching Wales."
He continued: “It’s probably unfair of me to say I had the suspicions [about one of them] because I’ve got no evidence or anything like that.
“It’s kind of like just saying, ‘Is there a possibility?'"
Asked if he felt it was his role to confront the player, he said: "No, no.
"It was more like a couple of people making jokes sort of thing."
“Truth in humour?,” Molloy asked.
“Yeah, exactly,” Gatland responded.
The coach, who is promoting his autobiography, said: "The sad thing about professional sport, and whether it's team sport or individual sport, when money's involved, there's that potential for it to be exploited with performance-enhancing drugs.
"I think we all want it to stay as clean as we possibly can...
"I’d like to think that the sport is clean. From a New Zealand perspective, I think it’s pretty clean.
“But when you go down levels… we’re seeing positives in Wales as well at junior levels and in other nations as well.
“There’s always that temptation in players wanting to try and play at a higher level and taking the risks by taking drugs. I definitely don’t condone that."
