Zak Hardaker, the former Castleford and England full-back, has received a 14-month suspension from UK Anti-Doping (Ukad) after testing positive for cocaine last year, meaning he will be free to resume his career in time for the 2019 season.
Hardaker, who was provisionally suspended by Castleford in the days leading up to last October’s Super League Grand final following confirmation he had failed a drugs test, is currently a free agent after the Tigers terminated his contract earlier this year; he is expected to join Wigan on completion of his suspension.
Testing positive for cocaine usually results in a two-year ban, as evidenced in the suspension handed down to the England internationals Gareth Hock and Rangi Chase in recent years. But Hardaker’s legal team were able to argue successfully that, as a result of a “number of exceptional circumstances”, his ban should be reduced.
Ukad’s full verdict of the one-day hearing explained that the days leading up to his in-competition test immediately following Castleford’s game with Leeds last September coincided with the anniversary of a “very distressing personal incident”. Hardaker “dealt with it by going out with a friend, drinking prodigious quantities of alcohol and then taking cocaine at the end of the evening when he was thoroughly intoxicated”.
The hearing quickly determined there was no performance-enhancing benefit behind the decision, before citing the case of the Italian cyclist, Luca Paolini, who tested positive for cocaine during the 2015 Tour de France – and saying he should “have the benefit of the rationale there given” in that case and another concerning a footballer who tested positive for cocaine in an Argentinian match.
Hardaker’s legal team also presented what they believed were “factual similarities” between his case and that of Jake Livermore, the England footballer who did not receive a ban after testing positive for cocaine following the death of his newborn child in 2015. However, Ukad rejected the notion of Hardaker avoiding a ban and suspended him from 8 September 2015 – the date of his test – to 7 November 2018.
“We believe the correct verdict has been returned and we would like to thank the tribunal for their professionalism,” the legal team at Chadwick Lawrence, Hardaker’s representatives, said. “This was a truly exceptional case, where the drug use was never linked to performance enhancement. In this regard Zak would never take any substance to achieve an unfair advantage and we are pleased that the decision of the tribunal has recognised this fact.”
