Player admits guilt in 'bloodgate' inquiry
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Your support makes all the difference.The player at the centre of the "Bloodgate" fabricated rugby injury scandal admitted today he asked a matchday doctor to cut his lip as part of the deception.
Harlequins winger Tom Williams said he had to twice ask Dr Wendy Chapman to make the incision in the changing rooms, as he became "extremely panicked" when match officials questioned whether his injury was genuine.
Williams had earlier bit the fake-blood capsule in his mouth to engineer a blood replacement which allowed a substituted specialist kicker back on to the field in the closing minutes of last April's Heineken Cup quarter-final tie against Leinster.
Leinster held on though to win the European rugby union tournament game 6-5 at the west London club's Twickenham Stoop ground.
Dr Wendy Chapman is facing a disciplinary hearing before the General Medical Council in which her conduct during the incident was alleged to be likely to bring the profession into disrepute and was dishonest.
Williams told a fitness to practise panel sitting in Manchester that he did not believe the doctor was aware beforehand that he had been instructed by his club to use the capsule shortly before he came on to the pitch.
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