The Kilkenny County Board is to protest to the GAA because of its failure to issue guidelines on the use of banned substances a mere 10 days before the Irish Sports Council is due to start it drug testing programme. A meeting of the Kilkenny board this week heard that many ordinary treatments for coughs and colds are in contravention of the guidelines laid down by the medical commission of the International Olympic Council (IOC) - guidelines which will be binding on all GAA players once the programme of random testing comes into operation. At the board meeting, the chairman, Ned Quinn, said that several ordinary cough mixtures contained the banned substance ephedrine.

"If this matter is ignored players will be put in an impossible situation," he said. "Many people take these preparations to relieve the symptoms of coughs and colds and if members of the GAA are found to be in contravention of the IOC rules, no amount of pleading will convince people that these players are not cheating. "The virgin image of the GAA as a sporting organisation would be gone."

The medical officer of the Kilkenny board, Dr Bill Cuddihy, said this week that "there is a need for education on this matter and action should be taken before it is too late in order to inform people of what sort of substances they can or cannot take."