Hird injected banned boosters: Dank Stress relief: Coach James Hird oversaw Essendon's controversial supplement program, according to Stephen Dank. Essendon coach James Hird has been accused of injecting a WADA blacklisted drug in a program where his players were given another substance anti-doping regulators now say should be banned. The sports scientist who ran the club's supplement program, Stephen Dank, said he injected James Hird with Hexarelin - which WADA banned in 2004 - and that before and during the 2012 AFL season, players were given anti-obesity drug AOD9604. Information gathered by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority corroborates this, but in a statement on Wednesday night, Hird said: "These claims are horrifying to me, and are being made by a person or people who appear determined to destroy my reputation. I have at all times fully adhered to, and promoted the WADA code and the AFL rules, and the code of ethics of the Essendon Football Club. Fairfax Media can reveal that WADA's List Committee of Experts panel recently told ASADA that AOD9604 should be considered a prohibited substance under one of its controversial catch-all rules. In an exclusive interview, Dank - the club's former sports scientist - also confirmed he gave players an extract from pig's brain used to treat alzheimer's, the first milk from a mother cow and a bark extract. But he has stressed that nothing he gave players was prohibited. Dank also stressed the supplements were safe for human use even though they were not listed as approved by regulators. Essendon chairman David Evans has vowed to deal with "any official [who] has failed in their duty of care to the players" while the club's legal team has hit back at WADA's assertion that AOD9604 was prohibited when players used it. Governance and player welfare failings at Essendon may result in the AFL charging the club or its senior officials with improper conduct or bringing the game into disrepute. Dank has claimed that at Essendon, Hird strongly supported his work and encouraged him to push the boundaries. According to Dank, the pair spoke and texted regularly and he was told by Hird he was in the coach's "inner sanctum." In information verified by Fairfax Media, Hird was given specific details about supplements being injected into players and the practice of giving injured or older players more supplements. Controversial practices include the exclusion of the club's part-time doctor, Bruce Reid, from key decisions on player health and using external doctors to sign off on requests to test player's blood or inject players. Essendon lawyers will challenge any attempt to penalise players for using AOD9604, saying the Australian Crime Commission's report on doping stated it was not banned and that advice given to the club by ASADA confirmed this. Records of Hird's and Dank's dealings reveal that the coach knew specific details about the supplement regime, including the intravenous administration of vitamins and injections into the stomach or oral administration of other supplements, including an immune-booster known as a thymosin. In addition to taking many of the supplements used by his players, Dank says he injected Hird with Hexarelin-a drug that may increase a person's human growth hormone levels and which WADA has banned since since 2004. Dank said he discussed the use of Hexarelin with Hird "at length." He asked me if players could use it and I said no. Mind you, he wasn't the only coach who was a regular user of it," Dank said. He said Hird also took Melanotan II, a drug that is popular among bodybuilders because of its tanning effect and claims it aids sleeping a person's libido. While not commenting on any specific club or sport, ASADA chief Aurora Andruska said that irrespective of whether a substance is banned by WADA, the use of supplements not approved for human use posed a "major health risk." The supplement program exposed players to products which risked breaching doping laws, often had unproved or uncertain health effects and, while able to be taken in some circumstances, are not listed as "approved" by the Therapeutic Goods Administration. When Dank worked at NRL club Cronulla in 2011, some players were given supplements, including CJC-1295, which stimulate the body's natural production of humane growth hormones and which WADA has also advised deemed banned. The fact that players were given substances WADA says are banned does not mean they will necessarily be found guilty of doping or sanctioned as they may argue they were inadvertently doped. Dank has revealed he was put under pressure at the Bombers to import sheep placental cells from overseas to use in players in 2013, a plan scrapped when he was sacked from Essendon late last year following a dispute about the expensive methods he recommended and used. Dank first used anti-obesity drug AOD9604 at NRL club Manly in 2010 and again at Essendon.