{"id":733619,"date":"2026-06-13T08:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T08:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/733619\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T08:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T08:22:14","slug":"rugby-news-2026-waratahs-player-henry-odonnell-banned-for-doping-adhd-medication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/733619\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby news 2026: Waratahs player Henry O\u2019Donnell banned for doping, ADHD medication"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NSW Waratahs<\/a> have confirmed that rising centre Henry O\u2019Donnell received and accepted an 18 month doping ban after testing positive to two prohibited substances in 2025.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donnell, 23, returned an in-competition positive result for two substances relating to ADHD medication in May last year, but he did not have a therapeutic use exemption for the medication at the time, according to a statement from Rugby Australia<\/a> and the Waratahs.<\/p>\n

\"Henry<\/p>\n

Henry O’Donnell playing for the Waratahs in 2025.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

He has subsequently been formally diagnosed with ADHD and now has an exemption for the medication.<\/p>\n

RA stated O\u2019Donnell was not in pursuit of performance enhancement in taking the medication.<\/p>\n

\u201cRugby Australia and the Waratahs note the SIA finding that the violation was not intentional and took place in a context unrelated to sport performance,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n

\u201cO\u2019Donnell now holds a therapeutic use exemption for the medication that he has been prescribed to treat his ADHD and will be eligible to return to play from 1 January 2027.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sports Integrity Australia is set to hand down its official findings next week. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Donnell was provisionally suspended in September, which saw him stood down from all training and contact with the Waratahs.<\/p>\n

He is currently taking a break from the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cHenry made an error of judgment and has paid a heavy price for that misstep,\u201d Waratahs director of high performance Barrie-Jon Mather said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe club has supported Henry throughout the process and we look forward to his return.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donnell told the Sydney Morning Herald that he took the medication to help him with his university studies.<\/a><\/p>\n

He was not able to tell people what had happened during the investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was starting to hear some pretty ordinary rumours. A few of my really close friends knew, but on the whole, my teammates knew absolutely nothing,\u201d O\u2019Donnell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the start, it was personal reasons, I then heard stuff to do with the police. I then heard doping. I heard everything.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Henry O’Donnell of the Waratahs runs with the ball.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cI was advised not to talk about it and I think out of the whole situation, that was probably the hardest thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd my mates, to be honest, were not pushy at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t get interrogated by any of the boys… but I didn\u2019t want to kill my social life either, so to a few of my close friends, I said: \u2018look, I\u2019m not going to say what\u2019s happened, but don\u2019t ask me questions, but I\u2019m still keen to hang out\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NSW Waratahs have confirmed that rising centre Henry O\u2019Donnell received and accepted an 18 month doping ban…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":733620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-733619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/733620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}