Women's national team footballer Ratanbala, Uttarakhand cricketer Rajan Kumar fail dope tests

NEW DELHI: The National Anti-Doping Agency (Nada) on Monday provisionally suspended Indian women's national team footballer Ratanbala Devi Nongmaithem after she returned positive for the prohibited substance metandienone. Uttarakhand cricketer Rajan Kumar, too, was suspended after his urine sample showed traces of anabolic steroids drostanolone, metenolone and clomifene.

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Tamil Nadu sprinter Dhanalakshmi Sekar, who failed a dope test for the second time in her career last year, was handed an eight year ban effective from September 9, 2025. She tested positive for anabolic steroid Drostanolone in Sept 2025, which was her second dope offence.




In its updated list of athletes suspended for various dope offences as on Jan 1, 2026, Nada said the 26-year-old footballer from Manipur stood suspended for an anabolic androgenic steroid (AAS). Ratanbala, who plays as a midfielder for the Indian Women's League (IWL) club Sribhumi, has 48 international appearances for India and scored 13 goals in the national jersey.

Metandienone, which goes by the brand name Dianabol, is banned at all times by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada). The drug is commonly used for increasing muscle mass, strength, and endurance.


In Kumar's case, the 29-year-old's ‘A' sample revealed the presence of a cocktail of steroids, generally used as a medication to treat infertility in women but also has the ability to restore testosterone levels among men.

Kumar last played against Delhi in Uttarakhand's Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Group D match in Ahmedabad on Dec 8, 2025.

Others in the list included Gaurav Patel (athletics, 19-norandrosterone), Khushboo Kumari (weightlifting, ligandrol), Achalveer Karwasra (boxing, metandienone) and Siddhant Sharma (polo, cocaine).

Prior to Ratanbala's dope revelation, other noted footballers to face Nada's ban included M Viknesh (tested positive for terbutaline), Ashutosh Mehta (morphine), Subrata Paul (terbutaline), Nishant Mehra (tetrahydrocannabinol), Dane Pereira (nandrolone) and Arun Malhotra (banned steroid).


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