Former coach of Halep Darren Cahill maintains his stance on her innocence during doping scandal: "Hope someone takes responsibility, Simona is not at fault"

The former coach of Simona Halep maintains his belief that the Romanian superstar is innocent as she prepares to present her case in hopes of getting back to tennis.

Simona Halep is going to have a hearing this month in order to present her defence as to how a banned substance showed up twice in her sample. One sample was taken at the US Open while the second one was provided after the first one showed a banned substance. According to reports from Romania, Halep has identified the culprit - a supplement. Speaking on the situation, her former coach Darren Cahill said in a Podcast from The Big deal:

"It is true that all athletes are responsible for every substance that enters their system, and Simona Halep will pay the penalty for this. Hopefully it won't be too much longer, because the fault does not lie with her. She did nothing wrong. I hope that whether a company made a mistake, or a medical person, or a person from WTA, or someone from her team did not do their due diligence, someone puts their hand up and takes responsibility for this because one thing I do know is that Simona is not at fault here."

Cahill was one of many to publicly back Halep after the news came out denying any chance that she did this on purpose. He referenced that in his talk as well:

"I released a statement when this came out about Simona and I'll be buried standing next to that statement because of her integrity and the DNA she is made of. There's no way she'd ever ever cheat. She is a great woman and a great person. There's no way she could have done the wrong thing."

He also revealed she has been on his mind lately a lot:

"I think a lot about Simona a lot and I feel sick every time I think about what she is going through. I don't have much news, but I understand there will be a hearing in February where she will get a chance to push her case forward."