IT’S RECKLESS
Ó Sé hits out at players who risk drug bans
KERRY legend Tomás Ó Sé has warned that it would be ‘reckless’ for any GAA player to go down the route of using performance-enhancing drugs.
With the GAA still coming to terms with the news that a fringe Monaghan player failed a drugs test in February, five-time All-Ireland winner Ó Sé has insisted there can be no tolerance of the use of performance-enhancing substances.
‘The ethos of the GAA is amateur and there are ways of getting an edge on an opponent, but taking a performance-enhancing substance is not one of them,’ said Ó Sé.
‘It’s absolutely farcical if that starts creeping into the game. I think it’s reckless, I think it’s wrong; there’s no way they could know what they’re at if they are using performance-enhancing drugs.
‘I don’t know exactly what is supposed to have happened with this case and I can’t really comment on the actual story but, in general, there is no place for any type of doping in the GAA,’ continued Ó Sé.
This is only the second time that a GAA player has failed a drugs test. Ó Sé’s former team-mate Aidan O’Mahony was found to have almost twice
the permitted level of Salbutamol in his system after the 2008 All-Ireland final. O’Mahony, who had registered his use of the drug to deal with an asthmatic condition, had a twoyear ban overturned after acceptance that it had been used in good faith to deal with a medical issue. That case underlined the need for players to be conscious of what drugs they take; something Ó Sé insisted he was aware of right up to his retirement in 2013. ‘I think certain remedies can be taken for minor ailments like colds and flus, and even I knew that when I was playing...that there were certain medications I couldn’t take,’ he said. ‘I would not even take Panadol Extra, or Anadin Extra or anything with “extra” in the name! ‘I am completely against any performance- enhancing substances being taken and it has no place in our game,’ added Ó Sé. The 36-year-old veteran won rave reviews earlier this month following his Cork SFC debut for Nemo Rangers, but, despite an impressive display, Ó Sé, who will be 37 next month, insisted he won’t come out of intercounty retirement. ‘Everybody has their time and everybody has to move on, so I definitely won’t be back,’ he said.