Demetriou shocked at latest Bombers claims AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou says he's "absolutely shocked" by allegations Essendon players were injected with a variety of bizarre substances. Former Bombers sports scientist Stephen Dank says Essendon players were given an anti-obesity drug, an extract from pig's brain, the first milk from a mother cow and a bark extract. But Dank told Fairfax Media nothing he gave to the players was prohibited and stressed the supplements were safe. Coach James Hird was also accused of injecting a WADA blacklisted drug by Dank. "I'm shocked by the complexity of the substances, the potential injurious nature of these substances," Demetriou said on Thursday. I'm horrified as a parent that - if true - young men were being injected with these substances. It's a terribly disturbing situation. Dank, the sports scientist at the centre of the Australian sports doping scandal, worked at Essendon last year. He has accused Hird of injecting Hexarelin. The drug is banned for players but not for coaches. But with his club under Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) investigation over supplement use while Dank was at the club, Hird has vowed to clear his name over the claims. Demetriou said Hird was entitled to the presumption of innocence. We need to allow the investigation to continue. We need to get to the bottom of this. We need to allow ... James Hird to put his case forward to the ASADA investigators," Demetriou said. But Demetriou warned club officials - found to have had influence over players taking performance-enhancing substances - would be punished. Any club official - whether they're a coach, an official at the club or in a official capacity, who's involved ... with the institution of or direction of players partaking in the use of performance-enhancing substances - there's no place for them in the game. Confronted by a huge media scrum on arrival at training at Essendon's Windy Hill base on Thursday morning, Hird said he desperately wanted to clear his name. "Obviously they are very upsetting claims," he said, also describing the allegations as "horrifying." Hird looks certain to coach the Bombers on Friday night against Fremantle in Perth. He flew west with the team on Thursday afternoon. Bombers chairman David Evans says the club's board won't make any immediate decision on Hird's future, saying he deserved "natural justice" over the claims. And until the ASADA review and a club probe into internal governance are complete, Evans is backing Hird. "The board will not be making a decision about these allegations today," Evans said on Thursday. James Hird is a person of great respect at this club ... the board will not be making decisions about the next steps until the processes of the review and the investigation take their course.