EXCLUSIVE: PARRAMATTA has become the seventh NRL team to be hauled into ASADA's investigation, with two current Eels players wanted for interview.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal the pair - recruited from Cronulla and Manly over the past two seasons - are among the 31 players who received interview notices last month.
The development came as ASADA chief Aurora Andruska backflipped on her snap decision to cancel interviews with Sharks players this week, following a stern phone call from NRL boss Dave Smith.
After a lengthy conversation with Andruska, Smith last night emerged with assurances that interviews would now begin next Monday - five days after they were originally scheduled to start.
The Parramatta twist throws further intrigue into the handling of the case, given the Eels weren't named in the explosive Australian Crime Commission (ACC) report as one of the six clubs with implicated players.
The Daily Telegraph can confirm Parramatta are not being investigated for systemic doping issues, with the two individuals wanted for questioning over treatment they received while playing for the former clubs. There is no suggestion the two Eels players ASADA want to interview were taking banned substances.
It's understood three of the clubs named in the report - North Queensland, Canberra and Newcastle - were only mentioned because they also carry certain players from the trio of outfits that once engaged biochemist Stephen Dank.
The investigation's central character worked at Manly, Cronulla and Penrith, but the Sharks are the only club under a systemic cloud, with 10 current players wanted for interview.
However, ASADA has strong reason to believe other players received additional treatment from Dank or his associates beyond the watch of their club doctors.
Parramatta had already been receiving advice from lawyers, because their trainer Trent Elkin supervised Dank at Cronulla and has been interviewed by ASADA.
Dank has denied administering banned substances to NRL players.
It's understood Elkin's lawyer - former ARL chairman Colin Love - is also acting for one of the two Eels players in the firing line.
When contacted last night, Parramatta CEO Ken Edwards declined to comment. But across town at League Central, Smith was on the front foot to vent his dismay at the further delays directly to Andruska.
Just 24 hours before their scheduled interviews were due to start, Cronulla players were told to wait another two or three weeks.
"That was what occurred, but I've since had a long conversation with ASADA and I've been assured that interviews with the players will begin in the next few days," Smith said last night.
"We've got to be mindful of the pressures on the players and the only way to (relieve that) is to get these interviews started, and I've been assured that they will."
Smith last night phoned interim Sharks CEO Bruno Cullen to inform him of ASADA's latest change of heart.