Sport Ireland have said that Kerry footballer Brendan O'Sullivan "bore no significant fault or negligence" after testing positive for a banned stimulant methylhexaneamine (MHA) last year, and that the product he took, Falcon Labs Oxyburn Pro Superthermotech, did not list MHA among its ingredients on the label.
O'Sullivan failed a doping control following the Kingdom's Allianz Football League final defeat to Dublin in April 2016 after he was found to have MHA in his system, a nasal decongestant and mild stimulant which was made a 'specified substance' by the World Anti-Doping Authority six years ago.
He subsequently served 11 weeks of a proposed 21-week suspension.
The suspension was lifted while O'Sullivan challenged the sanction at the GAA's Anti-Doping committee and then at the Irish Sport Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel.
After they upheld the suspension he served the remaining 10 weeks from 26 February this year and is now free to play again.
A Sport Ireland statement read: "After analysis by Sport Ireland, carried out at the WADA-accredited laboratory in Cologne - of tablets left over from the original tub which Mr O’Sullivan purchased and analysis of tablets from an unopened tub of the same product - and consideration of sworn testimony from Mr O’Sullivan regarding the internet search he had carried out, Sport Ireland accepted that it was a contaminated product case, that Mr O’Sullivan bore no significant fault or negligence and specified a sanction of seven months which it considered appropriate."
In the full report, Sport Ireland also outlined the details of how O'Sullivan came to take contaminated product: "In the run-up to the league final, a casual friend, whom (O'Sullivan) knew from attending a gym suggested to him that he purchase a caffeine tablet, a product which turned out to be Falcon Labs Oxyburn Pro Superthermotech.
"In the week before the final he purchased a container of these tablets in a vitamin shop in Cork which sells a range of fitness supplements.
"In his further evidence to the Appeal Panel the athlete stated tat he went to the vitamin shop nd saw the container of caffeine up on the shelf and read the label, and asked the person in the shop was this a caffeine tablet, and asked him is it okay and he said 'it's okay'.
"After buying the product he conducted an internet search. He went on Google, typed in the name of the company, typed in the product and typed in all of the ingredients. Nothing in the search flagged any concern about the contents so he assumed it was safe to take."
