Sport Ireland are to 'review' the decision of an independent judicial officer to ban Munster rugby player James Cronin for a month due to an unintentional anti-doping violation.
Sport Ireland Chief Executive John Treacy was asked about the case upon the publication of the organisation's 2019 Anti-Doping review.
Cronin tested positive for banned substances prednisolone and prednisone after Munster's Champions Cup match against Racing 92 at Thomond Park last November.
The independent Judicial Officer, Antony Davies, accepted evidence that the banned substances in the player’s sample were due to a dispensing error by a pharmacy and that the anti-doping violation was entirely unintentional.
Cronin's suspension runs from April 15th until May 16th.
When asked if Sport Ireland felt it was 'case closed' regarding James Cronin, Treacy said:
"We haven't decided it yet, but we're reviewing the case, whether we'll appeal it or not. We're reviewing the case as we speak."
"There is a timeline (to appeal) in that you have 21 days, I think the date is middle of May, sometime."
It was put to Treacy that a month's ban at a time when there are no games seems very lenient.
"That is the case, and that's why we are reviewing it," he said.
Sport Ireland wouldn't comment on the veracity of a Sunday Independent article that an inter-county GAA player failed a drug test. The alleged violation took place back in February, which is outside the parameters of today's anti-doping report.
In 2019, the number of blood and urine samples collected from 36 different sports climbed to 1,303 tests, an increase of 17 percent. Out of competition samples accounted for 79 percent of the samples collected.
There were five adverse analytical findings along with two other anti-doping rule violation cases in 2019. Three of the seven have been announced, while the other four are pending.
Director of Participation and Ethics, Dr Una May, revealed that testing has been affected during the coronavirus pandemic.
"We're not testing as routine during the pandemic.
"What we have said is that if we receive any information that would require us to focus particular attention on any athlete - at this time we are focusing a lot more of our intention around intelligence and we are working around customs and keeping monitoring and tracking individuals in terms of if there any deliveries or packages that are suspicious through those sources and through our relationships with them that would indicate that we should target individuals."
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