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Essendon players forced against will to take injections: reports

Essendon players were forced to keep taking supplement injections against their will even after voicing their objections, New Ltd are reporting.

News Ltd says sources have claimed that players were known to be unhappy with the injections but were told they would continue as a team policy.

The report reveals that at least four players went to a senior sports administrator for advice on the subject last year after being forced to sign consent forms while taking the supplements.

The crisis deepened yesterday with senior players, including captain Jobe Watson, meeting the AFL Players' Association to discuss their rights and risks with the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority-probe.

They were told that ignorance of what they took would be not considered an excuse for taking any banned substances.

Coach James Hird addressed the team before training yesterday.

Yesterday former Essendon player Mark McVeigh said there was no chance players did not know what they were taking but also claimed the club made sure there was nothing illegal being administered.

“We knew that it was 100 per cent above board, and we trust and respect our coaches and doctors who knew about it,” McVeigh told SEN

“And that if anything was to come of it we’d be absolutely shocked and disgusted.”

McVeigh said everything he took was within WADA and AFL regulations, and that players had sought to make sure all rules were being followed.

"When we were told we would be taking certain supplements and having injections, the club and the players asked that we could have, not a waiver form... it was a consent form that the players asked for," McVeigh told SEN.

"We were going on a different program that we hadn't been on before. We'd never really gone into some of the supplements we were taking that we were going to take so we asked for a consent form that WADA and the AFL code would make sure it was ticked off and that it was within the regulations.

"We were comfortable with what we were taking."

He also claimed that the only off-site injections that were performed on him as a player were vitamin injections.