‘Zero detection’: Twist convinced Dogs of Addo-Carr innocence

Bulldogs football boss Phil Gould has explained the timeline of events that has led him and other club officials to believe star winger Josh Addo-Carr is innocent.
Addo-Carr stood himself down from the Bulldogs’ elimination final against Manly on Sunday afternoon amid the fallout from a positive roadside drug test last Friday night.
Speaking on Wide World of Sports’ Six Tackles with Gus on Wednesday, Gould revealed Addo-Carr had gone himself to a clinic and undertaken a urine sample, the results of which on Tuesday returned a negative result.
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Gould explained how passing that test meant the window Addo-Carr had for taking cocaine that would still be in his system when the roadside test happened was extremely narrow, and fell while he was preparing to play against the Cowboys.
“When we sat down and thought about it, to have what they allege was cocaine in his system on Friday night, he’d had to have had that in the last 48-72 hours. Well, he was training with us,” Gould said.
Josh Addo-Carr in action for the Bulldogs against the Dragons in round 23. NRL Photos
“He was playing up until Friday morning – he pulled out on Friday morning because he had a … foot injury. He’d injured it the week before and then he hurt it on Thursday evening at training.
“On Friday morning he limped in and said ‘I’m no good’. That was the morning of the test – Friday morning.
“Thinking about the previous two days, there’s no window where you would ever consider he would do something like that – not that he would ever consider doing it anyway. He told me he’d never done it.”
Addo-Carr tested positive for cocaine on an initial roadside test. Gould said a backlog of secondary tests means the wait time for a result could be up to three months.
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“On Monday morning when this started to exacerbate, he went himself to a clinic … he got a urine test done, we got those results back yesterday,” Gould said.
“He’s completely zero. Negative to any drug we put on the list to get tested for. Absolutely no detection.
“That was on Monday morning. That rules out that he could’ve taken it maybe even Thursday or Friday. So the window gets even narrower if has allegedly taken a drug, for it to have appeared in his system on Friday night.
“We’re extremely confident Josh is telling us the truth, and that the roadside test is inaccurate.”
Gould said representatives from several other clubs had reached out to share they too had had players fail initial roadside tests, but later had secondary tests come back negative.
“(Initial tests) are not accurate – it’s just an indication for the police maybe they need to do a second test,” Gould added.
“Josh got a faint line on that reading, so he’s gone off for a second test.”
Gould also reiterated it was Addo-Carr’s call to stand down from the Manly clash to take the heat away from his teammates.
Should the Bulldogs beat Manly on Sunday, Gould said there was no reason Addo-Carr wouldn’t be considered for selection to take on either Penrith or the Roosters in week two.
He said the NRL Integrity Unit can not stand a player down based on the results of an initial roadside test, meaning neither the Bulldogs nor the NRL has grounds to stand Addo-Carr down should he wish to return to the field before the police’s B sample result is known.
As for the rest of the Bulldogs squad, Gould said outside noise barely penetrates the club’s inner sanctum.
“The media and fans probably read more into the effect it has on the club more than anything,” he said.
“These sort of thunderbolts get thrown at professional sports organisations all the time, particularly in rugby league. Internally, it doesn’t have that much of an effect.
“Everyone sort of deals with it, they’ve understood the landscape, and we all sort of move on. But it distracts the media and fans, which is why we wanted to nip it in the bud.”
“It’s disappointing Josh won’t be there, and that will disappoint a lot of fans.”