Two former Super League players admit to taking performance-enhancing substances

Two former Super League players have revealed they took performance-enhancing drugs in a bid to boost their careers, with one going as far as suggesting some coaches actively protected players from drug testers in a bid to avoid them being caught.

Oliver Wilkes and Jamie Acton both played at the highest level of the sport in Britain, with Wilkes representing Wigan and acting playing for Leigh. Now, they have come clean in an interview with ITV about the lengths they went to in order to give themselves the best chance of playing among the elite.

Wilkes, who played for Whitehaven before securing his move to Wigan, said: "You think to yourself: 'Is that what I have to do to, to get in the team? Do I have to take something? Where I grew up the nearest big club was Wigan. I grew up was a Wigan fan and when I got the phone call that day, it was like all my dreams come true.

“Did I feel guilty that had taken something, that that was illegal in sport? Or was it like: 'Well about time'?"

Wilkes also lifted the lid on how he felt some players had been able to deliberately avoid being tested after being tipped up by coaches, and said he can even remember instances of how carefree players were to take performance-enhancing drugs.

"On a couple of occasions, I could say that if anybody had mentioned drug testers are here 'if you're not here now – here is your chance to bob out'," he said. "There has been a couple of times when guys have nipped out and their names haven’t gone down on the list. I remember being at a club and a guy jumped in the back of my car for a lift between training sessions and he just jabbed a needle in his arm.

"It’s the pressure of getting in the team, it’s the pressure of dealing with injuries, it’s the