THE former girlfriend of GWS midfielder Lachie Whitfield emailed ASADA with allegations two months after she had first raised concerns with one of the club’s former officials.

The ex-girlfriend first contacted then-GWS football operations chief Graeme Allan in May last year. But she then took the step of emailing ASADA to express concern about Whitfield’s behaviour after there had been no action from the initial complaint.

She also contacted Allan for a second time while also reaching out to ASADA via email.

While ASADA has received the email from Whitfield’s ex-partner, the doping body has allowed the AFL to run its own lengthy investigation into the alleged evasion of a drug test, asking the AFL to hand over its findings. The AFL has just finalised its report and is now ready to hand over to ASADA.

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Allan's explanation to the club was that Whitfield was suffering from a migraine — which was also the club’s belief — and that Allan had encouraged him to go to the home of Craig and Melissa Lambert to get himself right.

In text messages between Whitfield and his ex-partner, the former No. 1 draft pick indicated that he had been encouraged to stay at the Lamberts. But it is understood there is no reference to drug taking.

Under the rules the officials and Whitfield could be subject to multi-year bans if it involves a breach of doping rules.

Collingwood chief executive Gary Pert questioned Allan on the situation and his conduct on Tuesday. The Magpies are yet to formally announce their decision to appoint Allan as the new head of football replacing Neil Balme.

GWS Giants number one draft pick Lachie Whitfield. Source: News Corp Australia

The AFL has used text messages from Whitfield and others phones and other information from computers to complete an investigation into the matter, which the club took seriously enough to complete a separate investigation via a Queen’s Counsel.

The GWS view, clearly, places greater responsibility on the officials than on the player, but it is unclear whether there will be any repercussions for any of those involved.

Sources say that Whitfield has suffered as a result of the investigation, that it has played on his mind and that he has been angry at times. Under the rules, a player can self-report if he has taken illicit drugs but this can only be done once.

One reason that ASADA has become involved is that there is the possibility that a player can take an illicit substance cut with a performance enhancing drug — which is the scenario that Collingwood pair Lachie Keeffe and Josh Thomas found themselves in early in 2015.

The other reason for the AFL to alert ASADA is that there are potential offences for evading or encouraging a player to evade a drug test under the doping code.

The text messages from Whitfield’s ex-girlfriend are understood to be not helpful to Whitfield but a range of outcomes — from the very severe to the matter being completely dropped — are possible.

The AFL’s head of legal Andrew Dillon is responsible for any action that the AFL ultimately decides to take after ASADA has reviewed the report.

Whitfield will play next week in a qualifying final against Sydney.