FORMER national netball captain Simone Forbes has been banned for three months by the Jamaica Anti-doping Commission (JADCo) Disciplinary Committee following a hearing held at the Institute of Jamaica on East Street in Kingston, yesterday.

Following 35 minutes of deliberations, the panel of chairman Kent Gammon, Juliet Cuthbert and Dr Peter Charles, ruled that Forbes had committed an anti-doping violation after returning “an adverse analytical finding” for the prohibited substance Clomiphene in an out-of-competition test on March 28.

The ban could mean the end of Forbes’ 13-year illustrious career. She told members of the panel that it had been her intention to retire from the sport after this July’s World Netball Championships (WNC) in Singapore.

The ban, which takes effect from April 18 when Forbes was provisionally suspended, ends on July 17 — six days after the WNC concludes.

The hearing was continued from Tuesday when JADCo attorney, deputy solicitor general Lackston Robinson, asked for time to receive instruction and properly review the notes presented by Forbes’ doctor, professor Joseph Fredericks.

Upon retaking the stand yesterday, Fredericks professed ignorance initially of the knowledge that Forbes was an athlete, and then of the fact that Clomiphene was on the World Anti-doping Agency’s (WADA) 2011 Prohibited Substances List.

“I never thought, knowing that Clomiphene is such a weak drug, that I did not have a clue that it was on the list,” Fredericks, who is a doctor of reproductive medicine at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), said.

Clomiphene falls under Section Three of the WADA list of prohibited substances under the heading of Hormone Antagonists and Modulators and other Anti-estrogenic Substances.

“If I had known, I would have discussed it with her,” Fredericks added, stating that he could not recall if the matter had come up in any visits he had had with Forbes since she first became his patient in April 2010.

“My primary purpose is the problem immediately presented to me. (If I had known) I would have discussed with her the possibility of withdrawing that drug until she completed her sporting career,” he said.

Forbes in the meantime, told members of the disciplinary panel that she had then and still trusted her doctor, and relied on him entirely, believing that if he thought that “this was doing anything harmful to me, he would have said something”

Forbes, who turns 30 on June 20, said that following the last World Championships in Auckland in 2007, she had considered starting a family and that she did not intend to wait until after retirement to make sure that all was okay with her reproductive health and had visited Dr Fredericks with this in mind in April last year.

After being diagnosed with a medical condition, which Fredericks said affects between 21 and 30 per cent of women, Forbes had undergone surgery and was subsequently being treated by the doctor of obstetric and gynaecological medicine.

Pressed by Robinson, Forbes admitted that she was aware of a prohibited substances list and that as an athlete it was her responsibility to ensure that no substances on the list would be in her system.

The athlete said, however, that it never entered her mind that Clomiphene could be banned especially since she had done many drug tests since the start of her treatment and had never tested positive even once before.

“I do take JADCo seriously,” Forbes said in a statement to the panel following cross-questioning by the members of the disciplinary committee.

“I’ve worked very hard for this and wouldn’t do anything to cause me to be in this predicament now, knowing that I’m three months from retiring,” the athlete stated.

Forbes, who plays five different sports, first started playing netball in 1998 and has represented Jamaica in several World Youth and World Netball Championships.

She captained Jamaica’s senior team since late 2007 until earlier this year when she said she would not be applying for the position following a change in rules for selection of team captain by the Jamaica Netball Association (JNA).

JNA president, Marva Bernard, who along with team doctor Praimanand Singh represented the national association, said that she could do nothing about JADCo’s decision, but would need to have further dialogue with Forbes to find out her next course of action.

“Based on the reasons for giving the decision that they gave in that athletes are responsible for what they ingest, I don’t have a leg to stand on… it’s a disappointment for all of us who love and know Simone’s contribution to the team,” Bernard said.