A FOOTBALLER from Worcester has been suspended from all sport for two years after testing positive for cocaine.

UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) has confirmed that Jamie Insall failed the drugs test on March 11 when he was on loan at Scottish side East Fife from Hibernian.

The 25-year-old striker – who has played for Worcester Raiders, Bromyard Town, Pershore Town, Littleton and Westfields – claimed that his friends had spiked his beer with cocaine without his knowledge.

But UKAD chief executive Nicole Sapstead said: “Regardless of how it got there, every athlete is solely responsible for what is in their system and must adhere to the strict liability principle.

“They must ensure that they take the appropriate steps to manage the risk at all times.”

The suspension ends on March 30, 2019.

According to the UKAD report, Insall said he had been with four friends in Edinburgh on the day before the drugs test, and that after socialising during the daytime, the group had returned to his flat to watch a football match on TV. During this time, the group drank a number of bottled beers.

After testing positive, the following day, Insall contacted his friends and "admissions were made to having dissolved cocaine in bottles of beer during the evening in order to ingest it without his knowledge," says the report.

"He asserts that the cocaine must have entered his system as a consequence of him inadvertently drinking from a bottle, or bottles, of contaminated beer."

The report also noted that Insall had a "very negative" view of drugs because a close friend's brother died from overdosing on heroin and cocaine, and "cannot get his head around why people would take drugs when they know the risks involved".

Insall had undergone anti-doping training that included advice to warn associates about consuming drugs around him and putting him at risk of inadvertently consuming them, the report added.

It concluded that Insall was "significantly at fault" for not warning his friends about drugs.

Insall scored regularly in Worcester’s Sunday league football scene before Stourbridge came calling.

His ability in front of goal soon caught the attention of Hibernian in 2015.

After a month’s trial, Insall secured a three-year deal at the Scottish Championship side before having two loan spells at East Fife.

The former Kidderminster Harriers youth team player scored eight goals in the 2015/16 season as they clinched promotion to Scottish League One and six goals last term.

But he was released a year early from his Hibs contract at the end of the 2016/17 campaign.

The Worcester News has tried to contact Insall for a comment but he did not respond.