Springbok Elton Jantjies given four-year ban for prohibited substance

Springbok flyhalf Elton Jantjies' career could be over with it confirmed on Thursday that he has been banned from rugby for four years after testing positive for a prohibited substance. 

The 33-year-old, who is a 2019 Rugby World Cup winner, first tested positive for Clenbuterol - a substance used by many bodybuilders to lose weight and produce muscle - back in August 2023. 

He vowed then to prove his innocence, but on Thursday, on the South African Institute for Drug Free Sport (SAIDS) website, it was confirmed that Jantjies had been banned for four years. 

Khalid Galant, SAIDS CEO, further confirmed the sanction to News24, adding that the window for any potential appeal from Jantjies had now lapsed. 

This potentially career-ending development is the latest in a string of controversies that have plagued one of the most polarising figures in the history of South African rugby. 

In mid-2022, Jantjies was arrested and charged with malicious damage to property and a contravention of the Aviation Act after he allegedly lost it on an Emirates flight that landed at OR Tambo International in Johannesburg. 

Charges against Jantjies were later dropped, but he was back in the headlines in November of the same year when it was alleged that he was having an affair with Springbok team dietician Zeenat Simjee. 

Both parties denied the accusations. 

At his best, Jantjies was regarded as the form playmaking flyhalf in South Africa and he guided the Lions to three successive Super Rugby finals between 2015 and 2017. 

He was considered a vital cog in the Springbok squad at the 2019 World Cup, too, where he was the second-choice pivot behind Handre Pollard.