Newcastle Knights playmaker Jarrod Mullen has tested positive to the anabolic steroid Drostanolone and now faces a maximum four-year ban from the game. The test results were delivered just a week after the 29-year-old aggravated a recurring hamstring injury. Knights coach Nathan Brown says the club is concerned for Mullen's welfare."Jarrod's welfare is everyone's main concern, not what's happened, how it's happened or why it's happened," he told reporters yesterday.
Mullen, a local Newcastle junior, joined the club's development ranks in 1997, the same year his soon-to-be mentor, Andrew Johns steered the Knights to a miraculous last minute grand final victory over Manly. He would serve as understudy to the Newcastle, NSW and Australian Test great, going on to represent NSW in one State of Origin game himself in 2002. Mullen also played four times for Country in the City vs Country representative fixture. But the Knights have endured several poor seasons in succession with him in the halves, finishing dead last in both 2015 and 2016. Mullen will now decide whether he wants his B-sample tested in the hope of clearing his name.The positive drug test caps off a horror week for the Knights who look to have lost forward Pauli Pauli for most of the season after he suffered a dislocated hip in a horror car pile up on Wednesday night.