THE Penrith Panthers have admitted paying $1160 for Sandor Earl to be injected with supplements in 2011 as the NRL's drugs-in-sport investigation claimed its first major scalp.

But Panthers Group boss Warren Wilson was on Thursday night adamant the club was unaware Earl’s medical bills related to banned peptide CJC-1295 and said the NRL star had gone off-site without Penrith’s consent.

In a watershed day that could blow the Australian Anti-Doping Authority’s seven-month investigation into rugby league wide open, the NRL hit Earl with a provisional suspension relating to the use and trafficking of CJC-1295.

News Corp can reveal that a Sydney doctor with a direct link to sports scientist Stephen Dank injected Earl 12 times during 2011 and billed the Penrith Panthers Group $1160.

Penrith Panthers Group boss Wilson confirmed Earl visited doctor Ijaz Khan’s Injury Care clinic in Cabramatta after suffering a shoulder injury when contracted to the Panthers in 2011.

TEXT MESSAGES EXPOSED EARL

FINALLY NRL HAS EVIDENCE

WHO IS SANDOR EARL?

TWEET A SIGN DISASTER LOOMED

media_camera Sandor Earl during his time at Penrith. Picture: Gregg Porteous

HOW IT WORKS

"When we first heard about it (in June), we looked for invoices under the doctor’s name but couldn’t find any," Wilson said.

"Then we Googled his name and we found the clinic (Injury Care). We found (12) invoices from that clinic for treatment to Sandor Earl, totalling around $1,000.

"They weren’t paid until January 2012 because the club wasn’t in the best financial shape at that time.

"They were also sent to Panthers Group and not the football club. When we found them we forwarded them to the NRL’s Integrity Unit to investigate.

media_camera Sandor Earl trains with Penrith in 2011. Picture: Simon Bullard

"We left it in the hands of the NRL. We’ve since conducted a review of our procedures, because there was a player going off-site for treatment without any authorisation from the club.

"That’s a problem, not just for Penrith, that you can’t control players once they’re away from your care.

"We’ve completely changed our procedures as a result and no one is to get any treatment - or pay any invoices - unless it’s authorised by the doctor.

"This player has done something individually wrong and if he’s found guilty of trafficking then I hope they throw the book at him."

Panthers general manager Phil Gould confirmed to News Corp in June that the club had referred the Earl issue to the NRL’s integrity unit.

Dr Khan’s Cabramatta Injury Care Clinic has previously featured in relation to Dank and the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Agency’s drugs-in-sport investigation, with the Cronulla Sharks billed by the clinic for blood tests at the start of 2011.

At the time the blood tests were conducted, Dank was in the process of implementing the supplements program that has landed the Sharks in the crosshairs of the ongoing ASADA investigation.

Crucially, CJC-1295 is one of the peptides the Sharks stand accused of using, according to the independent report compiled by Dr Tricia Kavanagh and detailed by News Corp in May.

Kavanagh’s report led to coach Shane Flanagan being stood down for a fortnight and four staff members being sacked by the club’s previous board, before the new board headed by Damian Keogh opted to overthrow the decisions.

Trainer Mark Noakes, who has since been reinstated against the NRL’s advice, provided a statement naming CJC-1295 and GHRP-6 as the peptides that the Sharks allegedly used.

media_camera Sandor Earl is in doubt for Canberra. Picture: Gregg Porteous

So given Earl has been issued with an infraction notice for the use of CJC-1295, Cronulla’s place in the finals remains a bone of contention among rival NRL clubs.

Dank has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing or giving athletes banned substances.

Earl joined the Panthers at the start of 2011 and spent the majority of his tenure injured or playing NSW Cup for Windsor Wolves.

He then switched clubs to the Canberra Raiders midway through last year and went on to star in the 2012 finals.

The winger, renowned for his combination with Blake Ferguson, started this season strongly before being dropped to NSW Cup and then recently re-emerged in the NRL.

In May, Earl announced he would be leaving the NRL at the end of this season to play French rugby for second division club Pau on a one-year contract worth $220,000.

That contract is now up in the air given that the World Anti-Doping Agency’s code can also be applied in European rugby.