Former prominent coach of Halep, Darren Cahill defends former World No.1 after failed drugs test: "There is no chance Simona knowingly or purposely took any substance on the banned list"

The former coach of Simona Halep, Darren Cahill, jumped to Halep's defence after she was banned from tennis over doping.

Halep was provisionally banned from tennis after two of her samples tested positive for a banned substance. The former number one promised to fight for the truth explaining that she would never take something like that willingly.

Her former coach Darren Cahill came to her defence being adamant that she would never do that:

"Even though I’m no longer working with Simona, I’d like to speak clearly to the person I know and the athlete that I worked with for 6 years. Firstly, and most importantly, there is NO chance Simona knowingly or purposely took any substance on the banned list. None. Zero."

He continued explaining how meticolou she is about stuff like that:

"She is an athlete that stressed about anything prescribed to her by a medical professional (which was rarely), or about any supplement that she used or considered. Simona wore out the words “please double check this, triple check this to make sure it’s legal, safe and permitted. If you are not sure, "I’m not taking it.”

Cahill further clarified that both he and Halep support regular testing of athletes to make sure it's an even playing field:

'We both believe in the ITIA testing program and would often discuss the number of times she was tested, both at tournaments and randomly. She did it without complaint, with the reassurance of knowing other athletes were being tested just as frequently. Competing against clean athletes was important to her. It’s important to everyone and while the system is not perfect, it works."