Addo-Carr seeking immediate reinstatement for second week of finals

Josh Addo-Carr plans to make himself available for selection for the second week of the finals should Canterbury progress past Manly on Sunday.

Addo-Carr has volunteered to stand himself down from the Accor Stadium clash with the Sea Eagles to spare the club adverse publicity after allegedly returning a positive result to a roadside drug test on Friday night.

The lawyer acting Addo-Carr said his client maintains he did not take illegal drugs and has raised questions about potential “irregularities” during the testing process. This masthead revealed that police were unable to follow usual roadside drug-testing procedures because officers received an urgent call to an attempted home invasion.

Addo-Carr has ruled himself out of Sunday’s finals clash with Manly.Credit: Getty

After allegedly testing positive to the first test, police required the premiership-winning winger to take a second. It could take up to three months for the results of the second test to be returned.

Sources close to Addo-Carr, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the delicate nature of the situation, said the winger wants back into the side should a win against Manly keep alive its premiership campaign.

Should that transpire, the Bulldogs will need to make a call on whether to slot their strike flanker back into coach Cameron Ciraldo’s team.

Bulldogs general manager Phil Gould.Credit: Nick Moir

During a press conference on Tuesday, Canterbury general manager Phil Gould was asked if the club would have stood Addo-Carr down had it known he allegedly tested positive in the first test.

“That’s an interesting question,” Gould said.

“Under the CBA rules, we have no reason to stand him down, nor has the league or the integrity unit who I’ve spoken to at length, have any reason to stand him down until that last sample comes back positive.

“So with that in keeping, there would be no reason for us to stand him down and go through the normal process …

“Josh has at all times defended his innocence and he said I didn’t take this, I didn’t do it, which is why in his own mind, he was convinced that when they let him go from the scene, that was the last we would hear from him.”

Asked if he could be stood down for lying to the club, Gould said: “Well, that’s the other part, did he lie to us?

“Well, I’m convinced in Josh’s mind that he didn’t think we’d ever hear about this. So he probably didn’t tell me the whole truth of the first positive or what he read. He kind of put that down to being inconclusive and that’s why they gave me a second test.

“So in that he hasn’t handled that part of it very well. Do I think he was deliberately lying to me to mislead me? No, that’s Josh.”

Keen to prove his innocence, Addo-Carr volunteered to do a urine test on Monday, which came back on Tuesday negative for all drugs. That result will unlikely hold much sway over how the Bulldogs deal with the former Storm flyer given cocaine isn’t normally detected in urine after 24-48 hours.

“It is clear that Josh was pulled over and tested on Friday,” Addo-Carr’s lawyer, Elias Tabchouri, said in a statement provided to this masthead.

“That test returned a positive result. This result surprised Josh as he states and maintains that he did not ingest any drugs not prescribed by a doctor at any time.

“As per legal requirements, a secondary test was taken that has been sent away for analysis. At some point, the result of this test will be made available. In relation to this whole incident, there is a prescribed procedure that police must follow.

“Josh and police leave the scene after the second test was taken and prior to any other testing, leading to question marks in relation to any possible police irregularities, as reported by certain media outlets.

“At some point in time, all these questions will be answered. When all the relevant information becomes available, a course moving forward will be decided. Until then, any speculation is not helpful, especially in circumstances where Josh maintains he has done nothing wrong.”

Gould held a meeting with coach Cameron Ciraldo and chairman Adam Driussi earlier on Tuesday and mulled the possibility of standing down the winger after his failed roadside drug test and questions over whether he had subsequently misled the club.

That decision was then taken out of the club’s hands when Addo-Carr elected to make himself unavailable for selection against the Sea Eagles.

“We want to put up a good showing for our first time in the finals [since 2016],” Gould said. “We’ve got a big crowd coming; fans and supporters – there’ll be a lot disappointed that Josh isn’t playing. He’s a very, very popular player in our club and with our fanbase, but in talking to Josh this morning he realised it was probably the right thing to do at the moment on behalf of the team and the club and I thank him for that.

“And I hope he’s proven innocent; I hope everything he’s telling me is one hundred per cent right.”

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