http://www.news.com.au/sport/nrl/st...g/news-story/885eb2327ed67b8fc1a1ede3019566d7
Stephen Dank claims NRL secret was behind shooting
DISGRACED sports scientist Stephen Dank has made the extraordinary claim he was shot to protect the doping secret of an NRL star.
Dank, the central figure in the Cronulla Sharks’ 2011 supplements program and the Essendon Bombers’ 2012 supplements program, claimed on Sunday he will not be silenced despite being shot when his Melbourne home came under fire in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Dank has claimed he believes the attack was designed as a threat to silence him before he was scheduled to give a speech at a South Bendigo Football Netball Club luncheon on Saturday.
Dank previously said he planned to reveal new information that would have been “damaging” to several prominent sports administrators in Australia.
He now says the shooting was an attempt to stop him exposing a prominent NRL player’s doping secret.
Dank told The Australian he injected a high-profile NRL player with banned oxygen-boosting drug myo-Inositol Trispyrophosphate (ITPP) in 2011.
Dank, his associate Darren Hibbert and the NRL star were the only witnesses to the injections, which reportedly occurred at Dank’s Mascot clinic in Sydney the night before the player’s biggest game of the season.
The results of the injections had such a positive impact on the player’s performance, Dank claims he and Hibbert decided not to inject other players.
Police at the Ascot Vale house where former sport scientist Stephen Dank was shot.Source:AAP
Hibbert says the same drug was instead mixed into the sports drinks of Manly Sea Eagles players during the second half of the 2011 season where the Sea Eagles went on to win the grand final against the Warriors.
Dank was employed by the Sea Eagles for six years before his employment was terminated in 2010 following complaints made by forward Josh Perry about the club’s injection program.
It has been reported Manly were investigated by ASADA as early as 2008 following the revelation Dank administered Sea Eagles players with a calf-blood extract supplement called Actovegin.
The Herald Sun reported it is unlikely the shooting at Dank’s home was the result of Dank’s plans to make fresh accusations against prominent figures in Australian sport.
Dank told The Herald Sun he has not been scared off from his plan to release new information.
“There are some anxious people from within the AFL, the NRL and ASADA with what we are about to release,” he said.
“I won’t be silenced.
“I’m more resolute than ever to fight this to the very end.”
Victorian ambulance officers escort biochemist Stephen Dank to a waiting ambulance.Source:Channel 9
Meanwhile, Fairfax Media investigative reporter Nick McKenzie has told SEN Radio Dank’s suspicions he was shot at to protect a secret are “absolute horse s***”.
“His claims that this shooting is somehow an attempt to silence him about what he might have to say about the AFL or any of the sporting clubs he’s been involved with, that seems to be absolute horse s***,” he told SEN.
“He’s been tainted for many, many months now. For years he’s got these explosive secrets that will clear players, that will clear the Essendon players, that will embarrass the AFL. He’s never actually put up. He’s just been making these claims. It suits his narrative to make these claims.
“He’s chosen to make them again after this shooting. It seems very unlikely there would be any connection between something he’s got to say that hasn’t been said and the terrible, violent incident that happened at his house.”
The 52-year-old was treated in hospital for a superficial graze to his forehead following the shooting and was released on the same day.
Dank was shaken by the incident but is now back at home after being released from hospital.
